A collection of our most popular payments insights
As the year begins to wind down, we thought you might enjoy a round-up of some of the hottest payments content TSG has released in 2021. Visit the collection →
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The Strawhecker Group (TSG), a globally recognized analytics and consulting firm that supports the payments ecosystem, is pleased to announce several new hires and promotions focused on company growth and expansion of client services. Read about the team →
“We are excited to add a great group of people to the team,” said Mike Strawhecker, President. “We are in a critical phase of growth and the new team members will help us on the path as we keep climbing.”
TSG recently celebrated its 15th anniversary. Since its inception, the firm has served over 1,000 clients including Fortune 500 leaders as well as dozens of the world’s most valuable brands.
E-commerce juggernaut Amazon is upping the ante in its battle against card giant Visa, informing United Kingdom merchants that it won’t accept U.K.-issued Visa credit cards for transactions. The move escalates an Amazon campaign to drive down the interchange fees it pays to Visa when customers use Visa’s credit cards to make purchases. The Seattle retailer has been waging the battle mainly by imposing surcharges on Visa purchases in some markets. Amazon argues that the card fees hurt retail businesses and result in higher prices for consumers.
As integrated-payments competition intensifies, payment gateways are responding by making it easier for developers to access and use vital technical information. Indeed, more gateways—65% of them—analyzed in The Strawhecker Group’s annual Payment Gateway Directory, sponsored by MCAG, have open developer-center pages. This compares with 48% that did so in 2020. The directory includes data on 110 payment gateways, up from 100 in the 2020 directory.
“Having public, ‘hands-free’ developer [application programming interface] and supporting documentation online is a must-have for a gateway to be competitive in today’s payment-technology environment,” says Cliff Gray, senior associate at Omaha, Neb.-based Strawhecker. “The Stripe model is an exemplar of this strategy.”
In response to media reports regarding a potential acquisition of EVO Payments, Shift4 would like to clarify that it is not pursuing one at this time. While Shift4 has tremendous respect for the EVO team given their mutual 20+ year history in the industry, Shift4’s current M&A priorities are focused on supporting our exciting new growth verticals announced at the November 10th Investor Day.
It's turning into a monumental year for India's stock market, as yet another big startup makes its public debut. But Paytm, which started trading in Mumbai on Thursday, spoiled the party: Its shares opened below the 2,150 rupees ($28.60) issue price, before closing down 27% at 1,564 rupees ($21). The flop reflects fears about Paytm's business. The company, which is now worth almost $14 billion, lost hundreds of millions of dollars last year and seems far from ready to turn a profit. It's also up against growing competition from some of the biggest tech firms in the world.
A planned pan-European payments network backed by 22 banks to compete with U.S. duo Mastercard and Visa appealed on Tuesday for public money, saying its private backers were not prepared to stump up all the cash needed. The European Payments Initiative (EPI) was launched last year and is seeking to get more banks and other players in payments on board by December to finalize plans to start rolling out its instant and card payments network. "Public funding would be nice," EPI Chief Executive Martina Weimert told an event held by the European Payments Institutions Federation. "Let's not hide it - it's going to be a massive investment. It's expensive."
One of China’s biggest mobile payment platforms, WeChat Pay, is apparently cooperating with several national financial institutions to further promote openness and interoperability among the digital payment industry. The news comes as regulators have urged private financial service providers in China to open up their platforms or face penalties. According to Chinese media, WeChat will work together with several central-bank-backed financial institutions to promote a more open payment ecosystem.
German digital bank N26 is shutting down its U.S. operations, less than two-and-a-half years after it launched in the country. N26′s 500,000 American customers will no longer be able to use its app from Jan. 11, 2022, the company said in a statement Thursday. The Berlin-based fintech, which was valued at $9 billion in a recent funding round, said it wanted to shift focus to its core European business. “U.S. customers will be able to use their accounts as usual until January 11, 2022, and will receive further instructions on how to withdraw their funds to ensure a smooth transition,” the bank said.
As the past few years have demonstrated, the world of finance is ripe for disruption. And it’s not just cryptocurrencies that are upending this space. Among the winners of Fast Company‘s inaugural Next Big Things in Tech awards are companies that are finding new ways to eliminate age-old problems, such as Zest AI, which is tackling discrimination in lending. Others are taking on decidedly more 21st-century problems, like Mastercard, which is layering on protections for credit card transactions so they can withstand a quantum computing attack.
Imprint, a one-year-old startup that offers branded payments and rewards products, announced a $38 million Series A funding round co-led by Kleiner Perkins and Stripe. It’s not every day that a leading fintech player and top-tier venture capital firm co-lead an investment. Notably, Imprint was also co-founded by a VC — Thrive Capital partner Gaurav Ahuja (chairman) along with Daragh Murphy (CEO). Thrive Capital, Affirm, Allen & Co., Late Show host James Corden, Lloyd Blankfein and unnamed CEOs of consumer brand companies also participated in the financing, which brings New York-based Imprint’s total raised since its 2020 inception to $53 million.
Global FinTech Airwallex raised $300 million in an oversubscribed Series E1 funding round that includes an additional $100 million, giving the Melbourne, Australia, startup a $5.5 billion valuation. Lone Pine Capital led the funding, with participation from existing investors 1835i Ventures and Sequoia Capital China. The latest funding round brings Airwallex’s total raised to $802 million. The fresh infusion of capital follows the startup’s third-quarter earnings that showed a 165% year-over-year revenue increase, and annualized revenue topping $100 million.
Concert operators may like Amazon's palm recognition system, but some performers and activists are less than thrilled. A group of 200 artists and 30 rights groups has penned an open letter demanding the Red Rocks amphitheater, its ticketing provider AXS and AEG (AXS' parent company) "immediately cancel" contracts to use Amazon One scanning at any venue. They also want the firms to ban all biometric surveillance at those events. The opponents to Amazon's palm tech include figures you'd recognize, such as Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello and Bikini Kill's Kathleen Hanna.
“We’re expecting another record-breaking holiday season this year and Thanksgiving weekend will play a major role as it always has,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. “Nonetheless, consumers are starting earlier than ever to be sure they can get what they want, when they want it, at a price they want to pay. Black Friday stopped being a one-day event years ago, and this year some consumers started shopping for Christmas as early as Halloween. NRF is encouraging consumers to shop safe and shop early, but retailers are confident they have enough inventory on hand to meet holiday demand.”
Target Corp. reported stronger-than-expected third-quarter earnings and sales and said it’s ready for the holidays as it remains focused on “protecting prices” for customers. The discounter, similar to other major retailers such as Walmart and The Home Depot, chartered its own ships to deal with global supply chain congestion and ensure that merchandise arrived at stores and warehouses in time to meet holiday demand. On the company's earnings call, chairman and CEO Brian Cornell said that the company unloaded about 60% of its containers at off-peak times and utilized other ports across the country to try to release some of the congestion in L.A. Long Beach.
Walmart reported its third-quarter sales rose 9.2% and raised its guidance for the third consecutive quarter. Despite ongoing supply chain challenges in the retail industry––including port congestion, shipping delays and staffing shortages––Walmart reported its inventory was up 11.5% ahead of the holidays. The retailer has been able to leverage its size to navigate the tricky supply chain waters. “Our momentum continues with strong sales and profit growth globally,” Doug McMillion, president and CEO of Walmart, said in a statement.
Lowe’s Companies, Inc. on Wednesday (Nov. 17) reported $22.9 billion in total sales for the third quarter of fiscal 2021, ended Oct. 29, up from $22.3 billion at the same time in 2020. The company’s comparable sales were up 2.2% in the same period, while U.S. portion of the company’s comparable sales rose 2.6% for the third quarter. “Our momentum continued this quarter, with U.S. sales comps up nearly 34% on a two-year basis, as our Total Home strategy is resonating with the Pro and DIY customer alike,” said Marvin R. Ellison, Lowe’s chairman, president and CEO, in the company announcement.
Macy's posted stronger-than-expected third quarter earnings Thursday, while lifting its full-year sales and profit guidance, as U.S. department stores follow larger big-box retailers with inflation-defying sales gains and holiday-quarter outlooks. Shares surged to a three-year high, as well, amid data showing the retailer had lifted its quarterly inventories by 19.4% as it stocked-up for a robust holiday season and said it was reviewing plans to spin-off its e-commerce business.
The road ahead for cryptocurrency regulation is a long and winding one. But some common themes are emerging from the din of voices calling for frameworks and guardrails, for the industry at large, and for holdings like bitcoin and stablecoins. There’s the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, which brings together a wide-ranging roster of regulators, including the collective heads of the Treasury Department, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Justt, a company developing an AI-powered platform to fight fraudulent chargebacks, emerged from stealth with $70 million raised across three funding rounds, including a series B led by Oak HC/FT and two previously unannounced rounds led by Zeev Ventures and F2 Venture Capital, respectively. CEO Ofir Tahor says that the proceeds will be used to expand Justt’s sales and marketing operations in the U.S. and Europe and to triple the size of the company’s Israel-based R&D team. False chargebacks, also known as “friendly fraud,” occur when shoppers wrongly dispute credit or debit card charges — costing online sellers an estimated over $125 billion in lost revenue.
A U.S. federal judge is allowing the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to liquidate approximately $56 million in proceeds seized from Glenn Arcaro, the lead promoter of BitConnect, a crypto lending program that defrauded thousands of investors out of an estimated $2 billion. The DOJ said in an announcement Tuesday that the liquidation was the most sizable recovery of assets tied to a crypto fraud by the U.S. to date.
U.S. shoppers accelerated their level of spending in October even as the prices of goods jumped at their fastest pace since the 1990s, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. Retail sales, a measure of how much consumers spent on goods ranging across categories from autos to sporting goods and food and gas, increased 1.7% for October, compared with 0.8% the previous month. Excluding autos, sales also increased 1.7%, according to the Census Bureau advance estimate.
Holiday shopping season is upon us and while the pandemic lingers, spending is on the rise, according to Discover’s annual holiday survey. The survey found 26% of Americans are expecting to spend more during the holidays this year than they did last year – a 10 percentage point increase from those who expected to spend more in 2020. The increase is driven largely by the younger generations as 44% of Gen Z and 33% of Millennials expect to spend more this year.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell for the seventh straight week to a pandemic low of 268,000. U.S. jobless claims dipped by 1,000 last week from the week before, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The applications for unemployment aid are a proxy for layoffs, and their steady decline this year — after topping 900,000 one week in early January — reflects the labor market's strong recovery from last year's brief but intense coronavirus recession.
Toys“R”Us Asia has taken another step in its ongoing digital transformation, adopting Adyen as its online payments provider across multiple markets in the Asia region. The retailer has been experiencing significant growth on its ecommerce platforms across the region and plans to build on that trajectory with a strong partner that shares its vision of further enhancing the online experience for its customers. In Hong Kong and Malaysia, Toys“R”Us benefits from Adyen’s unified payments solution that simplifies settlements in local currencies.
Worldline, a global leader in the payments and transactional services industry, is transforming the way e-commerce businesses can do business in India, a country that has experienced rapid digital transformation and is primed for extended growth. Worldline is launching a new full-service cross-border solution designed to fit the needs of international online businesses who are looking to expand or optimize their e-commerce in India but don’t have a local payments infrastructure. The solution will be available early next year.
North American Bancard, LLC (NAB) is excited to announce the launch of its Payments Hub Developer Portal, a free, one-stop destination to learn about integrations, view product information, and connect directly with NAB’s Technical Sales and Engineering teams. The Developer Portal offers features such as a developer-friendly viewer for API specs and downloadable SDKs; Featured Use Cases and an interactive Integration Selector that allows users to see which products best meet their unique business needs.
Marqeta, the global modern card issuing platform, announced it has powered the launch of Square Card in Canada to help small business owners better manage their finances and cash flow. With the Marqeta modern card issuing platform, Square was able to scale its existing U.S. card program and expand it into the Canadian market, making it available for Square sellers of all types and sizes across the country.
SpotOn, the leading software and payments provider, announced it has acquired Dolce Software, a labor-management solution designed to help restaurants save time and money, ensure compliance and improve employee experience and retention. “Our customers are facing major challenges in attracting and retaining employees, and balancing complex and fast-changing compliance requirements,” said Zach Hyman, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of SpotOn.
ACI Worldwide, a leading global provider of real-time payments and digital payment software solutions, launched its proprietary Network Intelligence Technology as an integral part of ACI Fraud Management. The new technology enables banks, processors, acquirers, and networks to augment fraud prevention strategies by allowing them to securely share industry-wide fraud signals by feeding their machine learning models and leveraging their machine learning technology more effectively.
Priority Technology Holdings, Inc., a leading payments technology company building innovative payment solutions that collect, store and send money to power modern commerce, announced its third quarter 2021 financial results. "We delivered exceptional third quarter results, driven by impressive growth in our Consumer segment and strong demand in our Commercial and Integrated Partners businesses,” said Tom Priore, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Priority.
Greg Daily, Chairman and CEO of i3 Verticals, commented, "We are very pleased to deliver another quarter of sequential and year-over-year growth with new records in revenue and adjusted EBITDA. Our vision has been to grow into a vertical market software company that focuses on embedded payment opportunities. Our results highlight consistent execution of this vision as software and related services revenue has grown to 42% of our total revenue and our integrated payments now represent 63% of our total payment volume.
EVO Payments, Inc., a leading global provider of payment technology integrations and acquiring solutions, announced a global agreement with Oracle in which EVO will be able to enable Oracle’s enterprise payment solutions to EVO’s hospitality and retail merchants and offer acquiring services to existing Oracle software customers. EVO will develop a direct integration to the Oracle Payments Interface (OPI), which provides access to Oracle’s full suite of point-of-sale software solutions including Xstore POS (for retail), Simphony POS (for restaurants) and Opera (for hotels).
No cash? No problem. Visa announced a pilot program with The Salvation Army and tiptap to make donations contactless at The Salvation Army’s iconic Red Kettles this holiday season. When shoppers hear those familiar bells, they’ll be able to give back by simply tapping their contactless card, phone or watch on the tiptap devices – the same way they do in stores – no need to carry cash, scan a QR code, or touch anything.
Unlike other African countries, South Africa also has a functioning credit system with the prevalent use of credit cards. However, expensive value-added services like credit cards do not necessarily address the needs of underbanked people. Digital payments gateways, on the other hand, have a unique use case, particularly when they can help people use their basic bank accounts to make payments. Ozow is one such player. Coming off a year of exponential growth, it has raised a $48 million Series B to provide more alternative payment solutions to its millions of merchants and consumers.
Euronet Worldwide, Inc., a leading global financial technology solutions and payments provider, announced today the launch of Dandelion – a first-of-a-kind cross-border payments platform that modernizes the way fintechs, banks, ERPs and tech platforms can integrate business and consumer cross-border payments into their products. Today, consumers and businesses send more than $155 Trillion in cross-border payments annually – with costs exceeding $200 Billion.
U.S. Bancorp, the parent company of U.S. Bank, has entered into an agreement to acquire TravelBank, a San Francisco-based fintech company that provides an all-in-one, tech-driven expense and travel management solution. TravelBank is easy to use for employees and helps businesses control and track expenses, automate processes, streamline approvals and reporting, and ensure compliance with company policies.
Square announced the Square Photo Studio app, which makes it easy for sellers to take high-quality product photos from a mobile device and directly sync them to a Square item catalog or online store to improve the customer experience. In recent years, product images have become increasingly important to online selling success. In fact, according to recent Square data, retail merchants found that 94% of their first orders included product images, and only 11% were sold for the first time without an image.
CIT Group Inc. announced its Community Association Banking division has launched a new amenities feature in C-PropertyPay, a simple, secure payment system that lets residents and association members pay their dues, rent and other shared services fees online or via a mobile app. Available to CIT Community Association Banking clients that use C-PropertyPay, the amenities feature allows residents to now pay for additional items such as pool keys, access cards and more in one system.
Canadian fintech Newt has inked a deal with Blackhawk Network to operate an SaaS payment platform for BBVA's 11 million customers in Mexico. Newt will develop and operate its white-label SaaS platform for BBVA in conjunction with Blackhawk Network, connecting its payment services with Blackhawk’s digital catalogue of products, with end customers accessing them through the bank’s online and mobile services.
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