In this insightful interview, TSG sat down with TSG’s Senior Associate Mark Waring to address areas of his expertise in payments and where he sees the industry heading.
Mark has over 30 years' experience working in the payments industry and is a recognized leader for initiatives that improve customer profitability, development of innovative products, and launching in new markets. Prior to joining TSG, Waring held executive positions at First Data and PayPal.
Affirm, a business that has helped popularize a "buy now pay later" trend for Internet shopping, offered its shares to the public on Wednesday. The listing came weeks after the company pulled back its initial IPO plans amid uncertainty over how to price the sale. Affirm ultimately listed its shares at $49 under the ticker AFRM, but by mid-day shares were trading at over $100—a more than 100% increase. The opening day pop is reminiscent of Airbnb's IPO in December, which saw shares of the home-sharing company soar over 135%. In the case of Affirm, the pop is perhaps ironic given the company had delayed its offering in what many saw as a reaction to the Airbnb events.
Visa and Plaid called off their agreement ending the consumer credit giant’s takeover of the data-focused fintech API startup. The deal, valued at $5.3 billion at the time of its announcement, first broke cover on January 13, 2020, or nearly one year ago to the day. However, the Department of Justice filed suit to block the deal in November of 2020, arguing that the combination would “eliminate a nascent competitive threat that would likely result in substantial savings and more innovative online debit services for merchants and consumers.”
Online payments firm Checkout.com is now Europe’s top tech unicorn. Checkout.com said Tuesday that it had raised $450 million in an investment led by Tiger Global Management — which is also an investor in rival payments giant Stripe — lifting its valuation to $15 billion. That’s almost three times the $5.5 billion Checkout.com was worth in a $150 million funding round nearly seven months ago. It also makes Checkout.com the fourth-most valuable privately-held fintech business globally. Checkout.com’s platform integrates electronic payments, analytics and fraud monitoring into one platform.
During an interview at a Reuters conference, the ECB’s President, Christine Lagarde, noted that bitcoin had some “funny business” and asked for a global layer of regulation for bitcoin. This was a bit of an off-hand remark, but also comes at the same time as the ECB releasing the results of the end of public consultation around the digital euro, as well as a statement from Christine Lagarde that the digital euro was likely to come about in the next five years.
NCR Corporation is the mystery suitor behind a recently-announced bid for Cardtronics, an operator of ATMs in 10 countries, that was submitted even as the company worked to close a previously-announced deal with different suitors, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported. In mid-December, Cardtronics announced a $35 per share offer from an entity owned and controlled by private equity firms Apollo Global Management and Hudson Executive Capital. On Dec. 31, Cardtronics received an “unsolicited proposal from a third party to acquire all of the ordinary shares of Cardtronics for $39.00 per share in cash,” a Jan. 7 Cardtronics filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) stated.
ETA is excited to announce the 2021 Board of Directors, leaders from across the payments ecosystem that power fast, seamless and secure digital payments for merchants and consumers. “It’s an honor to have the opportunity to lead ETA at this time of accelerated adoption of payments technology,” said Guy Harris, President of the ETA Board and Head of Merchant Services for Bank of America. “I look forward to working with the Board of Directors to help ETA build upon its significant strengths and to serve this dynamic industry.”
The crew wasn't in Las Vegas this year; the show was moved online due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. But even a global health emergency can't stop the march of consumer technology. There were still plenty of gadgets, apps, electric vehicles, smart-home appliances, and brain-training headsets to tell you about. These are all our musings from our team during the show, including photos, written dispatches, and trends.
PayPal Holding Inc has become the first foreign operator with 100% control of a payment platform in China, according to Chinese government data, as the U.S. fintech giant eyes a bigger foothold in a booming market for online payments. PayPal acquired the 30% stake it doesn’t already own in China’s GoPay, formally known as Guofubao Information Technology Co., on Dec. 31, 2020, according to shareholder data from the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System.
Walmart said Monday that it is creating a fintech start-up with Ribbit Capital, one of the investment firms behind Robinhood, to create unique and affordable financial products for Walmart employees and customers. The big-box retailer did not share the name of the new company or say when its digital financial services will be available. The fintech startup will be majority-owned by Walmart and its board will include several company executives, including its Chief Financial Officer Brett Biggs and Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner. It said it will also name independent industry experts to the board and may acquire or partner with other fintech companies.
A wave of organizations — propelled by global COVID-19 pandemic circumstances — are moving their commercial and financial interactions online, and today one of the big players helping to enable that shift is announcing a significant round of growth funding to expand the tools and services that it provides to them. Rapyd, which provides an API-based “fintech-as-a-service” platform covering payments, banking services, fraud protection and more, has raised $300 million, funding that CEO and co-founder Arik Shtilman said in an interview will be used to expand its team, build out more technology and make selected acquisitions.
London-based FinTech startup Curve has raised $95 million in Series C funding led by IDC Ventures, Fuel Venture Capital, and the investment division of Vulcan Capital, launched from the estate of Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul G. Allen. Founder and Curve CEO Shachar Bialick said in a press release on Tuesday that the company strives to “empower as many people as possible to take control of their money,” and this latest round of funding is testament to that mission. “We are ecstatic that our investors share Curve’s vision” Bialick added, calling the fundraising “an endorsement of Curve’s unique product strategy.”
Gemini, the cryptocurrency exchange and custodian founded by the Winklevoss brothers, has launched the Gemini Credit Card offering cryptocurrency rewards. The company said the introduction of the credit card has been accelerated with the acquisition of the fintech startup Blockrize and will be made available to U.S. citizens in all states. According to Gemini, the card will work like a traditional card and will be widely accepted where major cards are accepted and the rewards will be automatically deposited into a cardholder’s Gemini account.
Goldman Sachs has selected card issuing platform Marqeta to help deliver its first digital current accounts, which will launch later this year. Marcus’ upcoming digital current account will be another cornerstone of the company’s growing consumer portfolio of financial products. The giant Wall Street bank is set to launch a range of new features in the coming months which will transform Marcus from an online savings and loans account to a full-suite retail banking provider.
The series A funding round for Southeast Asia's Grab Financial Group that provides financial services across payments, lending and insurance, was led by Hanwha, South Korea's asset management company. Additional investors included K3 Ventures, GGV Capital, Arbor Ventures and Flourish Ventures that helped raise $300 million in the funding round, according to a press release. GFG posted a 40% increase in revenues for 2020, launching its first wealth management product, doubling its monthly users in Dec. 2020 and in its insurance distribution quadrupling its monthly active users to over 4.5 million.
Americans are increasingly taking advantage of the buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) offerings thanks to a growing number of financial technology companies. A recent securities filing by Visa referenced the shift: When comparing the period of October 1 to November 30, 2020 to the same time in 2019, the company noted a big surge in the usage of debit by 21%, as compared to a decline in credit usage by 4%. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has in part been a big driver of this phenomenon, as consumers are finding fewer reasons to spend money with their credit cards.
Cybersecurity teams are facing new challenges to how they work as the Covid-19 pandemic has forced many security operation centres (SOC) to work remotely while also having to deal with new threats – all of which is leading to higher workloads and an increase in burnout for staff. Research by the Ponemon institute and Respond Software surveyed information security staff and found that the coronavirus pandemic is increasing hours and workloads of staff in a profession that was already a high intensity environment for people to work in.
A German-led police sting has taken down the "world's largest" darknet marketplace, whose Australian alleged operator used it to facilitate the sale of drugs, stolen credit card data and malware, prosecutors said Tuesday. At the time of its closure, DarkMarket had nearly 500,000 users and more than 2,400 vendors worldwide, as the coronavirus pandemic leads much of the street trade in narcotics to go online. Police in the northern city of Oldenburg "were able to arrest the alleged operator of the suspected world's largest illegal marketplace on the darknet, the DarkMarket, at the weekend," prosecutors said in a statement.
A preliminary settlement agreement over a months-long data breach involving electronic credit and debit card readers at Hy-Vee proposes paying victims up to $225 apiece for their costs and inconvenience, court documents filed Tuesday show. The data breach began in late 2018 and continued until the summer of 2019. Malware infected point-of-sale devices at Hy-Vee fuel pumps, drive-thru coffee shops, Hy-Vee Market Grille and Market Grill Express locations, Hy-Vee-owned Wahlburgers and the cafeteria at Hy-Vee's corporate offices in West Des Moines.
The UK Government has voted down a bill supported by 70 MPs to regulate buy now, pay later firms like Klarna, Laybuy and Clearpay. The amendment to the financial services bill was sponsored by Labour MP Stella Creasy, who referred to the entry of a host of BNPL firms as the "next Wonga waiting to happen". The BNPL industry has seen huge growth in recent years, with the likes of Klarna and Affirm becoming multi-billion dollar giants. According to research by Credit Karma, a quarter of Brits used buy now, pay later services to fund Christmas shopping, setting up a £2.3 billion bill.
May require account to read. The U.S. economy grew “modestly” in the final weeks of 2020, as a resurgence in Covid-19 cases prompted activity in some sectors to slow, a Federal Reserve report said Wednesday. The Fed’s periodic compilation of anecdotes from business contacts, known as the Beige Book, provided the latest evidence that the pandemic dealt a setback to the economic recovery in recent months. Soaring infection rates and efforts to contain the spread of Covid-19 also contributed to the U.S. labor market’s loss of 140,000 jobs in December, the first employment decline since the pandemic struck last spring, the Labor Department said Friday.
The number of Americans filing first-time applications for unemployment benefits surged last week, confirming a weakening in labor market conditions as a worsening COVID-19 pandemic disrupts operations at restaurants and other businesses. The larger-than-expected increase in weekly unemployment claims reported by the Labor Department on Thursday was seen by some economists as driven by the recent renewal of supplemental jobless benefits, but nonetheless raised the risk of further job losses in January after nonfarm payrolls slumped in December for the first time in eight months.
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. will propose a $1.9 trillion rescue package to combat the economic downturn and the Covid-19 crisis, outlining on Thursday evening the type of sweeping aid that Democrats have demanded for months and signaling the coming shift in the federal government’s pandemic response as Mr. Biden prepares to take office. The sprawling package includes more than $400 billion to combat the pandemic directly, including accelerating vaccine deployment and safely reopening most schools within 100 days of passage, along with $350 billion to help state and local governments bridge budget shortfalls.
Mastercard has partnered with NMI and Global Payments Inc. to launch its first live Cloud Tap on Phone pilot with Computer Engineering Group (CEG), a Napa, Calif.-based independent IT Services provider. Cloud Tap on Phone is one of Mastercard’s innovative next generation acceptance products, with the software hosted on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform. Mastercard has been spearheading the transition to contactless payments for years. The demand for faster, more convenient, safe, and now cleaner ways to pay has driven the transition to contactless, and it’s a one-way street with touch-free experiences expected to be permanent for consumers and businesses even after the pandemic ends.
Pineapple Payments, a rapidly growing payments technology company based out of Pittsburgh, announced today that it acquired 1st Payment Systems. Based in Roswell, Georgia, 1st Payment creates comprehensive payment programs for associations and Integrated Software Vendors (ISVs) in the Powersports and healthcare industries. Pineapple’s technology now becomes a focus of this strategic partnership, giving 1st Payment the ability to introduce new solutions and enabling both companies to deepen relationships with new and existing association partners. Terms were not disclosed.
As the one-year mark of the Covid-19 pandemic approaches and digital payments play a larger role in daily life around the world, there will be no reverse gear on consumer behavior as we head into 2021. In the third edition of its global research study, the “Visa Back to Business Study – 2021 Outlook,” Visa found that the continued small and micro business (“SMB”) shift towards digital commerce will evolve in the New Year and bring an increased focus on areas such as security and fraud prevention, and more emerging payment tools such as ‘buy now, pay later’ and mobile payment acceptance.
Equifax a global data, analytics and technology company has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Kount, a provider of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven fraud prevention and digital identity solutions, for $640 million. As global digital transformation accelerates, driving customer interactions to digital channels in record numbers, businesses require new ways to establish digital identity trust in real time to fight the growing problem of online fraud while reducing customer friction.
NMI, a leading payments enablement technology company, announced another year of major successes for 2020, as demonstrated by record business performance, key partnership wins, a multitude of product enhancements and a growing senior leadership team, as well as its plans to continue growth in 2021. “2020 has tested the flexibility of businesses around the world and we’re proud of the flexibility that NMI has proven throughout it,” said Vijay Sondhi, CEO of NMI.
Quickly and easily receiving payouts of winnings is the most important factor for U.S. sports bettors when selecting an online sportsbook, and prioritized by 37% of players, according to research released today by Paysafe, a leading integrated payments platform. The latest All the Ways Players Pay report also suggests that offering digital wallets and other alternative payment methods allows sportsbooks to overcome the challenge of card declines.
Worldline, the European leader in the payments and transactional services industry, announced the launch of its first ever Data as a Service (DaaS) platform for payments, Ingenico Insight. The state-of-the-art solution features the latest in machine learning (ML) and data science capabilities for payments combined with an intuitive and tailored user experience. Ingenico is part of Worldline since October of 2020 and offers merchants smart, trusted and secure solutions to empower commerce.
May require account to read. UBS Group AG is in talks to invest $400 million in Paytm, the most valuable Indian startup, in a bet on the surging digital payments market in the world’s second-most populous country, people with knowledge of the matter said. A fund run by UBS’s asset management arm is in discussions to buy a stake in Paytm alongside some of the Swiss bank’s clients, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. UBS is negotiating the purchase of Paytm stock from a group of the Indian fintech company’s employees, the people said.
BTRS Holdings Inc., a B2B accounts receivable automation and integrated B2B payments leader, and South Mountain Merger Corp. (“South Mountain”), a special purpose acquisition company, announced the completion of their previously announced business combination. The business combination was approved by South Mountain’s stockholders on January 12, 2021. Upon completion of the business combination, South Mountain changed its name to “BTRS Holdings Inc.,” and its Class 1 common stock and warrants are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market and the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbols “BTRS” and “BTRSW."
Lightspeed, a leading provider of cloud-based, omnichannel commerce platforms, announced the initial availability of the Lightspeed Supplier Network for North American retailers. The launch of the fully integrated stock ordering solution transforms supply chain management for SMBs, democratizing access to the strategic inventory visibility once reserved predominantly for enterprise retail and eCommerce giants as the global COVID-19 pandemic continues to place pressure on supply chains in 2021.
ACI Worldwide, a leading global provider of real-time digital payment software and solutions and JCB International Co., Ltd. (JCB), the international operations subsidiary of JCB Co., Ltd., Japan's only international payment brand, announced that JCB has completed the successful global rollout of its JCB Web API Service, including its Web API-based dispute function. JCB's full implementation of ACI Secure eCommerce, which serves as the foundation for the service, helps acquirers, merchants and payments service providers (PSPs) drive payments acceptance in key regions across Asia and globally.
Worldline, the European leader in the payments and transactional services industry, announced the launch of its first ever Data as a Service (DaaS) platform for payments, Ingenico Insight. The state-of-the-art solution features the latest in machine learning (ML) and data science capabilities for payments combined with an intuitive and tailored user experience. Ingenico is part of Worldline since October of 2020 and offers merchants smart, trusted and secure solutions to empower commerce.
Citizens announced that it has further expanded the reach of its national point-of-sale offering for merchants, which it has renamed Citizens Pay to reflect its proven and straightforward approach to providing businesses with budget-friendly payment options for customers who want a more transparent and predictable way to finance purchases. “Our platform has demonstrated the ability to drive impressive sales growth with a best-in-class customer experience,” said Andrew Rostami, president of Citizens Pay.
Daxko announced the expansion of its integrated payments and full service billing offering, Gains Pro, to serve all types of organizations in the health, fitness, and wellness industry from boutique gyms, to fitness clubs, and nonprofits like YMCAs and JCCs. The Way to Paid, Gains is a suite of payment processing and full service billing solutions to help organizations grow revenue, increase security, and maintain positive member relationships.
Synchrony Financial CEO Margaret Keane will step down after nearly a decade of running the co-branded card lender. Sixty-one-year-old Keane — one of few women to head a Wall Street financial firm — will remain at the company as executive chair of the board, while Synchrony president Brian Doubles takes over as CEO. The move was part of a long-planned succession, Keane said, and will take effect April 1. Keane helped take Synchrony public seven years ago as part of its separation from General Electric.
EVO Payments, Inc. (“EVO”), a leading global provider of payment technology integrations and acquiring solutions, has added NETePay Hosted™ and TranCloud™ from long-time partner Datacap Systems (“Datacap”), a top integrated payments middleware and gateway provider, to its suite of omnichannel solutions in the U.S. The Datacap NETePay™ Hosted and TranCloud™ software applications support all payment types, including card present and card-not-present transactions, and allow EVO’s merchants to consolidate payments across all channels with transaction tokens and token sharing across chains for both in-store and ecommerce transactions.
FrontStream Payments, a trusted industry leader in secure payment technology and distribution services for charitable giving, announced that it has integrated its disbursement services with Salesforce.org Philanthropy Cloud. Now more than ever, certified nonprofit organizations depend on donations to move their missions forward. Workplace giving programs are an easy and effective way for socially responsible organizations to support charitable giving by providing employees the opportunity to make tax-deductible donations.
Impulsify Inc. and Shift4 Payments are teaming up to integrate Impulsify's self-pay retail technology with Shift4's contactless payments. The partnership aims to expand contactless grab-and-go retail across hospitality, retail and other industries, according to a press release. Customers will be able to take advantage of free contactless credit card terminals — each a $400 value — as well as a $1,000 credit toward processing fees when they sign up.
Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. is a leading provider of technology solutions and payment processing services primarily for the financial services industry. Jack Henry's Banking division announced that their AlertCenter™ solution now seamlessly integrates with the SilverLake Teller Capture™ automated check processing solution to enhance check fraud protection. Payment fraud is on the rise with the majority of scams targeting checks and wire transfers.
Vanco, a leading provider of technology and payment solutions for the education, faith-based and nonprofit sectors, has acquired Smartcare, a growing provider of software for child care centers. Founded in 1998, Vanco helps more than 40,000 churches, faith-based groups, nonprofits, schools and educational organizations to simplify administrative processes, organize events and securely manage participant relationships.
ECS Fin is now a Nacha Preferred Partner for Corporate Remittance and Data Routing. In becoming a Preferred Partner, ECS joins a select group of innovators that Nacha recognizes for offering products and services that align with Nacha’s core strategies to advance the ACH Network. “Our Preferred Partners play a key role in the evolution of the nation’s modern ACH Network,” said Nacha President and CEO Jane Larimer. “We welcome ECS Fin to the Nacha Preferred Partner community and look forward to working with them.”
.png?upscale=true&width=1100&upscale=true&name=C-Level%20Banner%20-%20Mark%20Waring%20(FINAL).png)
