Square, which offers point-of-sale processing for merchants, is raising prices for some of its services, the company said Wednesday in a news release. Square is increasing the fee it charges merchants to instantly or same-day transfer funds to an external bank account, from 1.5% to 1.75% per transfer. Next-business-day transfers will remain free-of-charge, Square said. Additionally, Square will stop refunding merchants the processing fees it charges if those merchants process returns for their customers.
If any doubt remains that payment processors are rebounding strongly from the pandemic and all the restrictions it brought with it, Shift4 Payments Inc. likely dispelled it with the final-quarter 2022 results it posted early Tuesday. And if there’s a cloud on its horizon, it’s the waiting time the company has had to contend with in closing on one of its biggest acquisitions—the $525-million deal for Finaro, a 15-year-old Israel-based e-commerce acquirer Shift4 is counting on for global expansion.
U.S. payments giant Visa (V) remains committed to investing in the crypto sector and supporting the technology despite recent failures in the industry, the company said Tuesday. Reuters reported earlier Tuesday that Visa is “slamming the brakes” on new partnerships with crypto-related firms as the industry is facing renewed scrutiny after the collapse of once-popular crypto exchange FTX. A Visa spokesperson told CoinDesk that isn’t the case.
Swedish fintech Klarna has posted its biggest annual loss to date in 2022, but claims it’s made “clear progress” to return to profitability, according to annual results released Tuesday. Annual losses swelled by 47% to reach SEK10.4bn ($1bn) in the 12 months to December 31 2022, up from SEK7.1bn ($680m) in 2021 — it was a tough year for the fintech, which saw its valuation slashed by 85% to $6.7bn. Klarna, which wore the crown as Europe’s most valuable private tech company until its downround last summer, also made two rounds of layoffs last year — cutting more than 700 jobs in total.
This report explores the consumer financial profiles of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) borrowers using the Bureau’s Making Ends Meet survey and its association with credit bureau data. While many BNPL borrowers who we observed used the product without any noticeable indications of financial stress, BNPL borrowers were, on average, much more likely to be highly indebted, revolve on their credit cards, have delinquencies in traditional credit products, and use high-interest financial services such as payday, pawn, and overdraft compared to non-BNPL borrowers.
Three U.S. senators have written to Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, asking for details about its money-laundering controls and accusing Binance of being a "hotbed of illegal financial activity." The story was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. According to the letter to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, which was dated Wednesday, the group requested details of the company's balance sheets, internal procedures and any communications about alleged efforts by Zhao to limit compliance.
Financial technology giant Revolut reported its first-ever annual profit in 2021, according to financial accounts released Wednesday, as subscriptions to its paid packages and overall usage of its app grew sharply. The company reported revenues of £636.2 million ($767.1 million) for the year, three times what it made the previous year, and swung to a pre-tax profit of £59.1 million. In 2020, Revolut recorded a pre-tax loss of £205 million. Mikko Salovaara, Revolut’s chief financial officer, told CNBC the results were the product of Revolut’s diversified business and diligent cost control.
May require account to read. The whispers kept swirling: PayPal's visionary leader might leave. It was late 2022, and shareholders were counting on Dan Schulman to pull the stock out of a yearlong slide that's erased $279 billion in market value. But after he flew to Italy for his four-day wedding celebration on the banks of Lake Como, denizens of Silicon Valley and Wall Street began buzzing with the notion that PayPal's longtime leader was ready for a change.
Money transfer firm Wise has unveiled a new look and feel as it reaches 16 million customer worldwide. The complete visual makeover features a fresh green palette and a new font, and draws from global currencies, languages, alphabets and places around the world. Kristo Käärmann, co-founder and CEO of Wise comments: “Our new look is inspired by the millions of people and businesses worldwide that use Wise today.
Robinhood announced Wednesday that its self-custodial crypto wallet app is now available for all users on iOS. The wallet debuted last September in beta with 10,000 users and no network charges for swapping Polygon’s MATIC tokens. In January, the company rolled it out to more than 1 million users on the waitlist. While the app first launched exclusively with Polygon, the company has now included the Ethereum blockchain in the fold along with support for more than 50 ERC tokens like COMP, MATIC, SHIB, SOL, UNI, USDC and more.
In many ways, Target takes a "Moneyball" approach to competing with Amazon and Walmart, its much larger, much richer rivals. In that 2003 book, author Michael Lewis laid out how the Oakland A's general manager, Billy Beane, figured out how to compete with rivals, like the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers, that had much larger payrolls. Beane, who was played by Brad Pitt in the movie adaptation, had to use his money more efficiently and find ways to win that did not involve simply buying the best players available.
Amazon is focused on growing its same-day delivery efforts to better compete with competitors like Walmart and Instacart, according to a new report. The Wall Street Journal on Feb. 26 reported that Amazon was expanding its same-day delivery options. Amazon furnishes same-day deliveries differently than its other Prime deliveries, which typically take about two days to arrive.
Kohl’s Corp. reported a net loss and a sales decline in the holiday quarter amid an “inflationary environment” and offered weak guidance for the year ahead. Kohl’s is tweaking its turnaround strategy under Tom Kingsbury, who was named CEO in February after serving in the post on an interim basis since December. On the earnings call with investors, he said it would take some time" to turn around the business as he looks to reduce the chain’s reliance on general promotions without interfering with its popular Kohl’s Cash program.
The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to take up a case that could threaten the existence of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and potentially the status of numerous other federal agencies, including the Federal Reserve. A panel of three Trump appointees on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last fall that the agency's funding is unconstitutional because the CFPB gets its money from the Federal Reserve, which in turn is funded by bank fees.
The White House on Thursday announced a new cybersecurity strategy in the latest effort by the U.S. government to bolster its cyber defenses amid a steady increase in hacking and digital crimes targeting the country. The strategy, which is intended to guide future policy, urges tighter regulation of existing cybersecurity practices across industries and improved collaboration between the government and private sector.
An assessment of online shopping cart software used by e-commerce sites performed by the German cybersecurity agency found a slew of vulnerabilities, including code so old it's no longer supported as well as vulnerable JavaScript libraries. The Federal Office for Information Security - better known by its German acronym, BSI - said that it examined third-party web shop systems out of concern about the large amount of sensitive consumer data processed by online shops.
For a few weeks in late January and early February, the U.S. economy seemed to have reached a rare sweet spot. Inflation was steadily slowing from painful heights. And growth and hiring remained surprisingly sturdy despite ever-higher interest rates imposed by the Federal Reserve. Perhaps, the thinking went, the Fed’s inflation fighters were managing to nail a notoriously difficult “soft landing″: A scenario in which borrowing and spending slow just enough to tame inflation without tipping the world’s biggest economy into a recession.
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell again last week, pointing to sustained labor market strength and adding to financial market fears that the Federal Reserve could keep hiking interest rates for longer. Those worries were further heightened by another report from the Labor Department on Thursday showing labor costs grew much faster than previously estimated in the fourth quarter.
As consumers move more regularly between online and in-the-store, small businesses need the latest tools to provide the same type of shopping experiences seen at big brand companies. To make payments simple and provide small businesses with an easy-to-use portal to manage their website, inventory and marketing efforts – GoDaddy and Worldpay from FIS have teamed up to launch Commerce 360, an omnichannel solution tailored to the needs of small businesses.
Get Beyond announced new additions to its Board of Directors, marking a strategic shift in the direction of the company. The change comes less than a year after Bob Carr, Founder and Executive Chairman, appointed Mike Peters as the company's new Chief Executive Officer and President. In the past 12 months, the company has positioned itself for rapid growth, and the addition of these experienced Board Members points towards a bright future. The new appointees, Mia Shernoff, Robert J. Leonard, O.B. Rawls IV, and Robert Niehaus will join Honora Moore, Chief Legal Officer and Chief of Staff, Mike Peters, and Bob Carr on the Board.
As businesses juggle the costs and complexities of rising demand for online delivery, Fiserv, Inc. has introduced a new solution enabling enterprise restaurants, retailers, and grocers to optimize delivery operations, reduce costs, and regain control of their customers’ delivery experience. Via a new Delivery Optimization solution available to enterprises leveraging the Carat commerce platform, businesses are able to connect their digital commerce operations to more than 40 different delivery providers through a single integration.
"2022 was an important year for ACI, with significant new business wins, solid organic revenue growth and accelerating ARR bookings,” said Thomas Warsop, Interim President and CEO of ACI Worldwide. “Looking forward, we are excited about the opportunities across our businesses, particularly in Real Time and the Cloud, and confident in our ability to achieve our long term revenue growth target of 7-9% by 2024. We are making progress in our CEO search and expect to conclude the search in the coming months.”
Adyen, the global financial technology platform of choice for leading businesses, announces that it has become the first to embed the Click to Pay experience into its online checkout flow in all available markets. This innovative method of data retrieval addresses the widespread hurdle of manual card entry at the payment stage. By enabling enrolled shoppers to bypass data entry during online checkout and complete the transaction in only a few clicks, it simplifies the payment experience across devices and browsers.
CardFlight, a leading SaaS payment technology company, announced that more than 125,000 small business owners across the US now use SwipeSimple, the company’s easy-to-use, modern payment solution. SwipeSimple, CardFlight’s signature product, enables small businesses to accept credit card payments across several types of devices and in a range of environments, from retail to remote locations.
DoorDash is launching its first-ever credit card with Chase, the company announced on Wednesday. The DoorDash Rewards Mastercard will provide cardholders the opportunity to earn cash back on delivery and every other purchase made with the card. “As we further our mission to empower local communities and connect people to the best of their neighborhoods, we are thrilled to introduce the DoorDash Rewards Mastercard to give consumers more convenience and value on their everyday purchases from their favorite businesses,” said Usman Cheema, the senior director of Global Partnerships at DoorDash, in a statement.
Walmart and Citi are collaborating to introduce the Bridge built by Citi platform (“Bridge”) to Walmart’s 10,000 small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in their US-based supplier network. Bridge is a digital platform that connects SMBs with a diverse group of more than 70 lenders that provide qualifying businesses with loans of up to $10 million.
Italian paytech Nexi is to acquire 80% of Banco Sabadell’s merchant acquiring business in an all-cash deal worth €280 million, valuing the business at €350 million. Once the deal has been completed, Nexi will have more 380,000 merchants and around €48 billion worth of transaction volumes as of December 2022.