The payments industry is in a very different place than it was at the beginning of 2020. What a start to a new decade, huh? Despite hardships, the industry has continued to show resiliency and adaptability from helping support merchants as they pivot from brick-and-mortar, to helping consumers understand and embrace new payment methods. The payments industry is in motion and we are in for a very exciting 2021!
The Strawhecker Group's (TSG) experts have prepared a dozen data driven trends and predictions that we expect to pick up steam well into the new year. Click here to instantly download our insights (no form completion necessary).
Chinese regulators have ordered Ant Group, the mobile payments company run by billionaire Jack Ma, to overhaul major aspects of its business — a move that follows a scuttled IPO and comes just days after regulators announced an investigation of affiliate Alibaba. Regulators announced Sunday that it had found major problems in Ant Group's business practices in China. The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange and the People's Bank of China met Saturday to discuss perceived problems at Ant Group.
The highly competitive streaming-audio industry could be starting the New Year with some consolidation, a new report suggests. Jack Dorsey — the billionaire CEO of Square and Twitter — is said to be interested in buying TIDAL, the audio service owned by billionaire music legend Jay-Z. Unnamed sources told Bloomberg that the outspoken Dorsey has been seen with Jay-Z and his singer-wife Beyonce recently, and is reportedly interested in adding a music feature to payment platform Square’s growing stable of services. Although no official comments have been made from either party in this potential transaction, the report has triggered a torrent of speculation within the global streaming-media industry.
Bitcoin on Wednesday jumped to a record $28,599.99, after the digital currency almost quadrupled in value this year amid heightened interest from bigger investors. The world’s most popular cryptocurrency was last up 2.3% at $28,012. It has surged by nearly half since breaking $20,000 for the first time on Dec. 16. Bitcoin has increasingly seen demand from larger U.S. investors in particular, attracted by its perceived inflation-hedging qualities and potential for quick gains, as well as expectations it would become a mainstream payments method.
May require account to read. Fidelity National Information Services Inc. and Global Payments Inc. recently held unsuccessful talks for a merger deal that could have been valued at around $70 billion, people familiar with the matter said, in a sign that a wave of consolidation is still sweeping through the payments industry. The companies, which make technology that facilitates merchant payments and banking, were in advanced talks and aiming to announce a deal this coming week before the negotiations broke down in the last few days, the people said. It couldn’t be learned what specifically caused them to falter.
The year 2020 was disruptive and chaotic. And while it derailed or delayed some companies' plans for growth, it also created opportunities for new combinations — or, at the very least, didn't slow them down. Digital payments, instant credit and other pockets of the payments industry proved ripe for consolidation. But the payment companies that sought to consolidate also encountered economic, regulatory and other hurdles.
Unless you too achieved billionaire status in your 20s, Patrick and John Collison might make you feel like an underachiever. The Irish brothers’ 10-year-old payments platform, Stripe, today underpins billions of dollars of commerce. But in typical Silicon Valley fashion, Stripe doesn’t just want to be a mega payment company; its mission is “to increase the GDP of the internet” and build the “economic infrastructure” of the online world. Patrick has said one reason he and his brother became entrepreneurs is because “whatever your parents do, you just think it’s normal.”
Government officials and many bankers are wary of digital currencies because they fear bad actors will somehow exploit it to launder money and commit other acts of fraud. But bitcoin is not going away, and blockchain technology and crypto are slowly but steadily becoming more embedded in the financial services industry. Here are some of the key developments in 2020 that suggest how entwined these nascent sectors are with the future of banking — including new applications for the technology, the Federal Reserve’s interest in creating a digital currency, notable moves by Visa and Mastercard, major advances with regulatory acceptance, and the milestone achievement of several crypto firms securing bank charters.
May require account to read. The holiday season is almost over, but for many gift-givers, the tab won’t come due until well into 2021. Millions of U.S. consumers, looking to stretch their dollars and avoid taking on new credit-card debt during the coronavirus pandemic, flocked in recent months to “buy now, pay later” offers from financial-technology companies including Affirm Holdings Inc., Afterpay Ltd. and Klarna Bank AB. In November, the cumulative number of U.S. shoppers that had opened an Afterpay account exceeded 13 million, and 7.5 million of them had made a purchase using Afterpay in the previous 12 months.
Coinbase said it will suspend trading of XRP, the cryptocurrency the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Ripple Labs in regards to last week claiming it is really a security. Coinbase first listed XRP on its retail-facing platforms in February 2019. Starting now, XRP trading “will move into limit only,” Coinbase wrote. It will be fully suspended on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021, at 1 p.m. ET. “We will continue to monitor legal developments related to XRP and update our customers as more information becomes available,” Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief legal officer, wrote in a blog post shared in advance with CoinDesk.
A recently uncovered payment card skimmer is targeting several large content management systems that support the online checkout pages of dozens of e-commerce sites, according to researchers with Dutch security firm Sansec. To date, this new skimmer has been found on a dozen online stores' checkout pages that are supported by content management systems hosted on platforms from Shopify, BigCommerce, Zen Cart and WooCommerce, according to the report.
Economic shocks like the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 only arrive once every few generations, and they bring about permanent and far-reaching change. Measured by output, the world economy is well on the way to recovery from a slump the likes of which barely any of its 7.7 billion people have seen in their lifetimes. Vaccines should accelerate the rebound in 2021. But other legacies of Covid-19 will shape global growth for years to come. Some are already discernible. The takeover of factory and service jobs by robots will advance, while white-collar workers get to stay home more.
The $900 billion stimulus bill that President Trump finally signed into law on Sunday evening goes well beyond providing the $600 checks that became a huge sticking point in getting the legislation across the finish line. The relief package casts a wide net with a variety of measures aimed at addressing the needs of millions of Americans, including those who have lost their jobs, as well as small businesses, nursing homes, colleges, universities and K-12 schools. The package extends some provisions of the original stimulus package that was passed in the spring, while adding new measures to help working families who have continued to suffer amid the pandemic.
According to Mastercard SpendingPulse, holiday retail sales excluding automotive and gasoline increased 3.0% this expanded holiday season, running from October 11 through December 24. Notably, online sales grew 49.0% compared to 2019, the preliminary insights show. Mastercard SpendingPulse measures overall retail spending trends across all payment types, including cash and check. “American consumers turned the holiday season on its head, redefining ‘home for the holidays’ in a uniquely 2020 way. They shopped from home for the home, leading to record e-commerce growth,” said Steve Sadove, senior advisor for Mastercard and former CEO and Chairman of Saks Incorporated.
JPMorgan Chase has agreed to purchase one of the biggest third-party credit card loyalty operators in a bet that pleasure travel will rebound sharply after the coronavirus pandemic subsides, CNBC has learned. The bank agreed Monday to acquire the technology platforms, travel agency, gift card and points businesses of cxLoyalty Group, a privately held Stamford, Connecticut-based company, according to a person with direct knowledge of the deal. JPMorgan is taking about half of the company’s 3,100 employees in the transaction and will create a new business within its retail division reporting to Marianne Lake, head of the bank’s consumer lending business, the person said.
We’re excited to announce the release of IRIS CRM’s NMI Gateway Boarding Integration! NMI is a leading unified commerce enablement platform that enables ISOs to add additional value for their merchants and serves as a private label payment gateway that provides many additional cutting-edge features to create new revenue. The latest capability of boarding merchants to the NMI gateway supports Chase Paymentech Tampa, Elavon, First Data Nashville, First Data Omaha, TSYS, and Worldpay networks. Additional processors will also be added based on demand.
Business owners using the popular Clover® platform from Fiserv, Inc., a leading global provider of payments and financial services technology solutions, are now able to streamline payroll and time & attendance management with Paychex, Inc., a leading provider of HR, payroll, benefits, and insurance solutions. Small business retailers using Clover integrated with Paychex Flex®, now available through the Clover App Market, can more efficiently manage the essential tasks of payroll, staffing, time tracking, and scheduling while helping save time, increase accuracy, and reduce cost.
Leading integrated payments platform, Paysafe, today announces that it has extended its longstanding relationship with Microsoft that will see the tech giant offer an online cash payment option to millions of Microsoft customers by enabling paysafecard as a payment option in Microsoft Store in 22 countries across Europe. paysafecard, available in 50 countries through a distribution network of more than 650,000 points of sale, enables consumers to use cash to shop for goods and services online. Payment transactions are completed simply and securely, using a 16-digit code.
