SumUp, a U.K.-based payment processor, has acquired marketing start-up Fivestars in a bid to expand its reach across the U.S. and take on giants like PayPal and Square. The company said Thursday it was buying Fivestars for $317 million in a mix of cash and stock. San Francisco-headquartered Fivestars helps merchants set up rewards schemes and promotions for customers. The deal gives SumUp access to Fivestar’s 12,000 customers and $3 billion in sales per year. Founded in 2012, SumUp is best known for its mobile credit card readers that let small businesses accept payments.
Despite consumers’ expectation that checkout during an e-commerce purchase should be fast and instinctive, most online merchants still have checkout procedures that add unnecessary friction, says a survey from online-payments powerhouse Stripe Inc. The report, released Tuesday, reveals that 96% of 200 North American e-commerce merchants surveyed had committed at least five basic errors in their checkout process. Some 56% of customers took more than three minutes to complete a purchase, Stripe says. When errors occur that complicate and extend checkout, consumers are more likely to abandon a purchase if it takes more than a minute.
Four of the largest U.S. banks said their profits grew by double-digits last quarter, as a healthier U.S. economy has allowed banks to have fewer bad loans and charge-offs. But the results for Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley benefitted from one-time boosts to their profits, and low interest rates remain a significant headwind for Wall Street’s financial titans. Bank of America said net income rose 58% to $7.26 billion, or 85 cents a share. That topped the estimates of Wall Street analysts who were looking for earning per share of 70 cents, according to FactSet. Meanwhile Wells Fargo posted a 59% jump in profit from a year earlier.
MagicCube, a mobile security startup, has raised $15 million in a round led by Mosaik Partners. Bold Capital, Epic Ventures, card-reader/POS hardware maker ID Tech and unnamed individual investors in the fintech space also participated in the financing, which brings the Santa Clara-based startup’s total funding raised to $30 million since its 2014 inception. Put simply, MagicCube’s software-based security technology is aimed at replacing all security chips, which have historically been the standard for safely storing sensitive data and authenticating whoever needs access to it. And it’s starting with financial services.
Fortis Payment Systems, LLC (Fortis), a payment and commerce technology leader for software providers, developers, marketplaces and businesses, announced today the company has refreshed its brand look and feel to better reflect the new technology stack, solutions and value proposition it offers to partners and developers. Now doing business as Fortis, the commerce technology leader is on a mission to deliver a holistic payments experience, guiding businesses to reach uncharted growth and scale. Sensing industry fundamentals were shifting toward seamless experiences, the company's leaders staked out a new vision: to meet the future of payments by moving commerce closer to invisible.
The full-court press by the clearing companies and their big bank owners emerges at a time when a slew of financial technology startups are introducing new ways to improve the speed and efficiency of payments. Many of them aim to speed up payments sent by people to relatives and friends in other countries, whether that’s to share wages, make college tuition payments or respond to a financial emergency. Others are focused on business-to-business payments for compensating overseas suppliers and vendors. The new effort from The Clearing House, EBA and Swift, called immediate cross-border payments, or IXB, synchronizes “settlement in one instant payment system with settlement in the other” and converts real-time messages between the systems.
Cryptocurrency is emerging from the shadows, according to a new report, The Crypto Divide, published Oct. 6, 2021 by The Strawhecker Group. Researchers surveyed 600 small business owners about their thoughts on cryptocurrency acceptance and found respondents' perceptions ranged from low awareness to rejection, noted Jared Drieling, senior director of market intelligence and insights at TSG. "We found that merchants that do not accept crypto have a variety of nuanced reasons," Drieling said. "Some are closed off to the payment method entirely and see it as something only used by criminals. Others had a low awareness of the payment method in general but might be open to it should their customers start asking about it." Learn more
Cannabis e-commerce platform Dutchie on Thursday said it raised $350 million in its latest funding round that valued the company at $3.75 billion. “Dutchie works with over 5000 dispensaries across all legal geographies in North America and processes over $14 billion in annualized sales for our dispensaries,” Ross Lipson, CEO and co-founder of Dutchie told Reuters. He said the number of dispensaries more than doubled in the past year. The surge in cannabis use during the COVID-19 pandemic and expectation of more states legalizing cannabis has increased investments in the industry.
The payment processing firm Stripe is looking for four engineers to form a new crypto-focused team. Stripe’s head of crypto engineering, Guillaume Poncin, announced the hiring search on Twitter Tuesday. ”We’re starting a new crypto team at @Stripe. I’m hiring engineers and designers to build the future of Web3 payments,” wrote Poncin. The hiring move comes two years after Stripe’s CEO Patrick Collison said he was “very skeptical” of cryptocurrency. Stripe follows a growing number of traditional finance firms eyeing potential opportunities in the crypto market.
Say what you want about JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, but he's consistent about his disdain for bitcoin. Dimon once again attacked the top cryptocurrency, calling it "worthless" during a virtual summit Monday. "I personally think bitcoin is worthless, but I don't want to be a spokesperson," he said during a virtual appearance at the Institute of International Finance Meeting before adding, "I don't care, it makes no difference to me. I don't think people should smoke cigarettes."
Embedded finance continues to be a major theme in the world of fintech, with a wide swathe of new financial services companies tapping APIs built by others to power payments and other financial transactions, and more. In the latest development, Global Processing Services — one of the big players in the building and operating of those APIs — has secured a huge round of funding, $300 million, which it will be using to continue expanding its business globally. London-based GPS (as it is known) already works with a lot of big names in some 48 countries — its customers include Revolut, Curve, Starling Bank, Zilch, WeLab Bank and Paidy — and has processed some 1.3 billion transactions on its platform since 2007.
Nearly one in five Americans, or 46 million consumers, say they would be likely to make a purchase with cryptocurrency, with over half of current or former cryptocurrency owners coming from Generation Z — which is why Alfred Chang, co-CEO of PacSun, says it’s becoming critical for merchants to consider. “For this generation, we built our brand on remaining extremely relevant with things that are important to them and are part of their lifestyle,” Chang said in an interview with PYMNTS. “And while payment isn’t what we sell, it’s something that’s so part of their experience with us, so it's therefore critical for us to make sure we started accepting cryptocurrency.”
As in past years, testing store concepts has been top of mind for retailers in 2021, as the industry moved past the mass closures and severely dampened traffic of 2020. For some DTC brands, that means returning to physical retail after abandoning it last year or testing their first brick-and-mortar presence now that the environment is more favorable. For more established players, it means expanding recent store concept initiatives, introducing new formats and solidifying partnerships for shop-in-shops to make the in-store experience more compelling.
A renewed emphasis on off-premises services is paying off for the nation’s fast-casual restaurants. Fast-casual restaurants didn’t fare as well as traditional quick-service ones early in the pandemic, but their customers are returning, reported The NPD Group. Online and physical visits to fast-casual outposts in the year ending August 2021 were up 8% compared to a year ago, which keeps traffic on par or flat to pre-pandemic visits in August 2019. In the quarter ending June 2020, at the height of pandemic lockdowns and restaurant restrictions, fast-casual visits were down 23% compared to the prior year, according to NPD’s daily tracking of the U.S. restaurant industry.
Imports at the nation’s largest retail container ports should remain at near-record levels this month but could see a slight dip from last year’s unusually high numbers as congestion slows the movement of backed-up cargo, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released today by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates. “The cargo is there for larger gains at several ports but congestion issues are impacting fluid operations,” NRF Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold said.
A coalition of 96 consumer, labor, civil rights, legal services, faith, community and financial organizations and academics is urging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to revoke or significantly revise two actions taken in late 2020 regarding earned wage access (EWA) products. The groups’ letter argued that the CFPB’s EWA advisory opinion and PayActiv approval order, which declared certain EWA programs not to be “credit,” threaten to create loopholes in federal credit and fair lending laws and are being misused to promote fintech exemptions in state payday loan laws.
The Federal Reserve and the Business Payments Coalition (BPC) announced 73 organizations have joined an industry effort to stand up an operational pilot exchange framework to enable businesses of all kinds to exchange electronic invoices (e-invoices). Another 42 organizations will strive to assess whether a similar exchange framework can facilitate electronic delivery of remittance information across all payment types. The E-invoice Exchange Market Pilot and the Remittance Delivery Assessment Work Group are two industry efforts aimed at catalyzing the modernization of business-to-business (B2B) payments in the U.S.
Wondering why everything from cars and refrigerators to books and toys is in short supply? Blame the fouled-up supply chain that connects manufacturers around the world with the makers and assemblers of their component parts, as well as with the consumers and businesses that buy the finished goods. The problem emerged shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and it’s seemed to get only worse since then. How did we get into this mess? And why isn’t it getting better? The Times reached out to some supply chain experts, and here are their answers.
Consumer price inflation — one of the key inflation indicators — rose 0.4% in September, adjustefor seasonal swings, faster than in August but slower than in previous months, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday. Rising prices for food and shelter contributed more than half of this increase, while prices for new cars, household furnishings and car insurance also climbed. The index that tracks new car prices rose 8.7% over the 12 months ending in September, which marks the biggest jump since 1980.
Visa announced that the U.S. Spending Momentum Index (SMI) was 108.5 in September (seasonally adjusted), down 1.1 points from August. With the SMI reading still above 100, this signals that more consumers are still spending more than they did a year ago. By category, the SMI for discretionary purchases fell 0.8 points from the previous month to 105.0. The SMI for non-discretionary purchases fell 0.5 points to 99.6, marking a contraction in spending momentum. The SMI slowed the most in the Northeast, falling 2.7 points. The Midwest and South also slowed for the month, with both declining 0.3 points from August’s levels.
May require account to read. JPMorgan Chase serves more than 4 million small businesses and in 2020 processed more than 27 billion transactions with a value of $1.4 trillion — but these days, that's simply not enough. When the actual payment is commoditized, merchants care less about how big their provider is and more about what it can do. By combining Chase Merchant Services with WePay, a fintech the bank purchased in 2017, Chase is pairing its traditional payment acceptance services with newer digital tools that address merchants' other business needs. The new line of business, called Chase Payment Solutions, launches Thursday.
Fiserv, Inc., a leading global provider of payments and financial services technology solutions, is enabling financial institutions to build their small and midsize business (SMB) programs through the launch of a cloud-based, digital lending and credit platform. The latest Fiserv offering, leveraging the Atlas Platform from fintech StreetShares, allows financial institutions to manage the full lending lifecycle from digital document capture, underwriting, offer management and closing – delivering against the expectations of both staff and customers.
Multinational eCommerce company Shopify is partnering with a series of enterprise resource planning (ERP) providers to provide direct integrations into the Shopify App Store, allowing for seamless connections between workflows and more data-driven decisions. Shopify says more than 10,000 merchants use Shopify Plus to manage their volume and complexity, including Allbirds, Heinz, Schwinn and Lord & Taylor. The new Global ERP Program will give them a centralized system that connects their commerce platform to financial and inventory data.
Paya, a leading integrated payments and commerce solution provider, announced the addition of Michele Shepard as Chief Commercial Officer and Balaji Devarasetty as Chief Technology Officer. With these leadership appointments, Paya continues to strengthen its position within integrated payments and enhance its go-to market strategy and solutions suite. “The addition of Michele Shepard and Balaji Devarasetty to our executive team positions Paya to drive continued growth through accelerated innovation and expanded distribution of our leading, enterprise-grade integrated payments platform,” said Jeff Hack, Paya CEO.
Small businesses will now be able to access Synchrony products and services and accept private label credit card payments via the Clover® point-of-sale and business management platform from Fiserv, accelerating growth for small businesses and offering more flexibility and choice in how consumers make purchases. The availability of Synchrony's capabilities and products via the Clover App Market will help Synchrony's merchants attract more customers and drive more revenue through a broad suite of financing products.
Billtrust, a B2B accounts receivable (AR) automation and integrated payments leader, announced it has acquired iController, a leading B2B provider of intelligent solutions for collections management, for $58 million, financed with cash on hand. Founded in 2007, Belgium-based iController’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering enables a wide range of users, from credit and collections managers to CFOs, to see information and communication in real time, providing visibility into cash flow management.
Nuvei Corporation announced that BetMGM has chosen Nuvei to provide a seamless payment experience for its players in the U.S. Nuvei has deep roots with leading iGaming operators internationally, as well as extensive capabilities and knowledge in the rapidly growing U.S. market. "Our partnership with BetMGM further solidifies our technological prowess and deeply rooted expertise in iGaming," said Philip Fayer, Nuvei’s Chair and CEO. "Our growing client base in the U.S. sports betting market is a testament to our experienced team and robust platform. We look forward to expanding our partnership with BetMGM, improving player satisfaction and delivering an increase in conversion rates."
Splitit, the company empowering consumers to use their existing credit to spread payments over time, can now offer its installment payments options to Discover Global Network Cardholders worldwide. The addition of Discover, Diners Club International and network alliance cards to the installment payment platform brings another major global card scheme to its growing portfolio of payment partners. "We are thrilled to be working with Discover Global Network to empower their cardholders to be able to take advantage of installment payments on their preferred card," said John Harper, interim CEO of Splitit.
Payrix, an acknowledged leader in embedded FinTech, has launched in the Australasian SaaS market. The company brings an exclusive local product, designed and backed by a team of 35+ payments and software experts that joined Payrix following the acquisition of IntegraPay last year. This advancement into the local market comes at a time of significant innovation and growth in both the software-as-a-service (SaaS) and online payments industries that have resulted in a move away from the disparate models and multiple providers that have traditionally dominated the local market.
Markaaz and Mastercard announced a new partnership in which Mastercard will bring products and services – including in the areas of payments and security – to the Markaaz platform to help support small businesses. With a powerful set of tools, services and data, Mastercard and Markaaz, the world’s first pre-verified community of businesses, will partner to enable users to save critical time and money in identifying and working with their partners. Small businesses spend on average 17 days a year verifying and re-verifying themselves for everything they need, ranging from bank loans, to insurance, to other services and more.
Digital payments provider NETELLER has announced a new feature for its digital wallet that enables users to withdraw funds directly to a cryptocurrency address of their choice. Customers of NETELLER, which is part of the specialized payments platform Paysafe, are able to instantly convert and withdraw their fiat balance to an external cryptocurrency wallet by entering an address. The feature can be accessed when a customer goes to withdraw funds in their account and selects ‘Crypto Wallet’. The user then enters the balance amount and wallet address of either a Bitcoin or Ethereum wallet.
For a long time, contactless payment with a smartphone was only possible with methods such as Apple Pay or Google Pay. Apple has still not opened its NFC interface for other payment solutions. But with the new Computop Close-by service, the use of NFC signals for payment is about to become much easier for retailers and service providers. Using this solution, the payment process will shift to the smartphone - without an app and without registration. The launch of Computop Close-by is set against a backdrop of change in how payments are being made, particularly in retail.
ACI Worldwide, a leading global provider of real-time payments and digital payment software solutions, announced that its ACI Secure eCommerce solution has outperformed the latest global eCommerce fraud prevention industry benchmarks published by the Merchant Risk Council (MRC), an international member-based organization promoting eCommerce fraud knowledge. ACI eCommerce has outranked all key fraud prevention KPIs, including acceptance and deny rates, as well as challenges and chargebacks.
Barclays has opened a campus in Glasgow to house its technology, operations and functions teams as well as the bank's Eagle Lab technology startup operation. The 500,000 square foot site will house around 5000 employees by 2023, (it currently employs 3750 staff in Glasgow), as the bank works with universities in Glasgow and Edinburgh to develop a pipeline of high-skill technology roles.
Bottomline, a leading provider of financial technology that makes complex business payments simple, smart and secure, announced that it is a Platinum Solution Partner of MRI Software, a global leader in real estate technology. Central to the partnership is a scalable, API-based integration coming this quarter between Paymode-X, the company’s AP automation solution, and MRI Software. The integration enables real estate companies to use one platform for all their accounts payable and payment automation needs – B2B, B2C, domestic and international.
In a significant development for the global payments industry, BNY Mellon has collaborated with Microsoft to migrate infrastructure supporting wire payments into Microsoft Azure. As part of this advancement, BNY Mellon has developed a treasury cash management relationship with Microsoft Treasury built on the Azure cloud payment system. This cash management relationship establishes the capability to secure high value wire payments that are critical to the orderly functioning of markets over cloud technology. BNY Mellon is driving forward the resiliency of the bank's payments platform and the broader financial market infrastructure that it serves.
Eftpos has partnered with Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank, Coles, Woolworths, Azupay, Beem It, and Merchant Warrior to launch its new QR code payments platform it's calling eQR. To begin rolling out as a new consumer payment option before Christmas, eQR has been described by Eftpos CEO Stephen Benton as a system that will become the "QR equivalent" of the company's tap and pay feature on its debit cards.
