TSG sat down with Microsoft to talk about emerging issues that the payments community may not be aware of, their partnership with Chargebacks911, and what merchants can do to be proactive
Trends suggest that the positive 2021 YOY growth metrics are likely to stabilize. Portfolio managers need to be aware and plan accordingly. Before 2020, electronic payments spending trends were generally predictable and cyclical for each calendar year. For example, leveraging TSG's Acquiring Industry Metrics (AIM) platform, a significant correlation was found (0.99) when comparing average small to medium business performance (SMB) account size trends between 2018 and 2019.
As the world rolled into 2020, the market disruption caused by the global pandemic resulted in a decrease in per merchant spending relative to 2019. The average SMB account size did not recover to 2019 levels until July and August of 2020. The 2020 recovery was largely aided by government relief policies such as stimulus payments. The depressed per merchant location spending of early 2020, and subsequent increase to expected levels in 2021, resulted in impressive 2021 year-over-year growth measures. What does this mean for 2022? keep reading →
Bitcoin fell below $26,000 for the first time in 16 months, amid a broader sell-off in cryptocurrencies that erased more than $200 billion from the entire market in a single day. The price of bitcoin plunged as low as $25,401.29 on Thursday morning, according to Coin Metrics. That marks the first time the cryptocurrency has sunk below the $27,000 level since Dec. 26, 2020. Bitcoin has since pared its losses and was last trading at $28,358.58, down 3.6%.
Cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase has lost half its value in the past week, including its biggest one-day drop ever on Wednesday as the famously volatile crypto market weathers yet another slump. Coinbase reported a $430 million net loss in the first quarter, or $1.98 per share, on declining sales and active users. Analysts were expecting profit of 8 cents per share. Revenue was down as trading volumes fell, and active monthly users declined 19% from the fourth quarter.
Google is launching a new Google Wallet app on Android and Wear OS, looking to streamline its payments products and lock users into Android more tightly. The move is part of a broader effort by tech giants Google and Apple to bind consumers more closely into their mobile devices by making the digital wallet as essential to consumers’ everyday lives as the physical wallet. That means making the digital wallet not just a way to pay at the point of sale with a credit card but also use tickets, IDs and other essential items.
Paya Holdings Inc., which has been acquisitive in recent years, isn’t done doing deals. Chief executive Jeff Hack won’t name names, but multiple acquisition targets have clearly been scoped out. “We’re busy doing due diligence on a variety of deals. We see attractive opportunities for inorganic growth. You should expect us to act on these without hesitation,” he told stock analysts on an earnings call early Wednesday. On a nearly simultaneous earnings call, the new chief executive of Paysafe Ltd. admonished his executives and employees to stress growth as the company seeks to recover from weakness in its digital-wallet business.
More consolidation is apace in the world of payments: Nexi, the Italian fintech that scooped up rivals Danish-based Nets and then Italy’s SIA to create a $12.5 billion European payments giant, has made another acquisition, this time to dig deeper into financial services for small and medium businesses in the region. It has fully acquired Orderbird, a startup out of Germany that provides point of sale products and related services for restaurants and other businesses in the hospitality industry, with 14,000 active clients.
VizyPay CEO Austin Mac Nab says he’s taking on the “dinosaurs.” By that, the head of the Waukee, Iowa-based company is referring to the payments company behemoths that have been in the industry for decades. Mac Nab wouldn’t name them, but said his payment processing company’s culture, transparency and focus on small business owners set it apart in the broader payments landscape. At 37, Mac Nab is also probably a lot younger than many of the CEOs who run those larger rivals. He cofounded the company just five years ago in 2017.
May require account to read. Even in Silicon Valley, a place teeming with entrepreneurs where fortunes are made seemingly overnight, Ryan Breslow stands out. He has promised to shake up the boring but important business of online payments with Bolt Financial, the start-up he founded eight years ago at 19. He has fashioned himself into a fund-raising maven, dispensing wisdom through TikTok videos and self-published books. Forbes magazine put him on a recent cover, estimating his net worth at $2 billion. And this past week, Mr. Breslow traveled to Warsaw to show support for Ukrainian refugees.
Swedish fintech company Klarna specializes in letting consumers split up the costs of payments without charging interest. It’s taking one more step toward changing the future of shopping, launching a virtual-shopping feature that allows retailers to provide consumers with the ability to connect with sales associates through chat and video calls in order to get advice, product photos, and demos. “We’re trying to solve for a lack of service in online shopping,” says Adam Levene, Klarna’s head of social shopping.
Tiger Global, one of the biggest venture investors in fintech, has seen losses of about $17 billion as result of this year's tech stock sell-off, erasing about two-thirds of its cumulative gains since launch in 2001. The hedge fund cum venture firm has been among the most enthusiastic backers of fintech, ploughing billions of dollars into the market across 76 deals in the past six months alone.
Meta started renaming its products after the company switched its name: The Oculus Quest and Facebook Portal devices, for instance, are now known as the Meta Quest and Meta Portal. It's only natural for the company to also plan the future of its payments experience as it continues to expand into the metaverse, and that includes a name change for it. Stephane Kasriel, Meta's head of fintech services, has revealed in a longer post about the metaverse that the company is soon renaming Facebook Pay to Meta Pay.
Grocery delivery platform Instacart said late Wednesday it has filed a draft registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), paving the way for the firm to list its shares. The grocery delivery company was valued at $39 billion in March 2021, when it raised $265 million. That made Instacart one of the most valuable venture-backed companies in the U.S. at that time. However, it said in March it was slashing its valuation by almost 40% to about $24 billion, to reflect this year’s sell-off in technology stocks.
Consumers have a clear favorite retailer when it comes to purchasing everyday items. According to the new “Pulse of the American Consumer” survey from Engine Insights, a leading 65% of surveyed consumers visit Walmart to make everyday purchases. This was more than 20 percentage points higher than the second-most popular retailer for everyday items, Amazon (43%). Rounding out the top five were Dollar Tree (34%), Dollar General (31%), and Target (30%).
The new appointments come as Target is focusing on its end-to-end customer experience, the retailer stated. Target named Cara Sylvester as executive vice president and chief guest experience officer, a new role for the retailer. In this role, Sylvester will lead Target’s customer experience strategy, focusing on personalization to attract more customers to Target’s stores, website and app. She originally joined Target in 2007, most recently serving as executive vice president and chief marketing and digital officer.
As an agent on the IRS’s cyber investigations team, Chris Janczewski led some of the government’s biggest crypto busts, including the takedown of a major child exploitation site and the seizure of much of the $4.5 billion of bitcoin stolen during the 2016 Bitfinex hack. Those busts helped Janczewski make the jump to the private sector a few months ago. He’s now the head of investigations at a private crypto intelligence firm called TRM Labs, which, among other things, focuses on detecting illicit crypto transactions. Most people probably aren’t even aware that this kind of crypto detective work is a thing, but Janczewski is making a career out of it.
The United Kingdom has proposed two new pieces of legislation - the Financial Services and Markets Bill and the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill - to regulate the digital assets industry and curb the use of virtual currency in illicit activity. The announcement was part of the Queen's Speech, a portion of which was read by Prince Charles at the opening of the U.K.'s new Parliament session. The country is set to introduce legislation for safe adoption of cryptocurrencies, in a bid to strengthen its financial services industry.
Match Group, the company behind popular dating apps such as Tinder, Match, and OkCupid, is suing Google over its restrictive billing policies on the Play Store. In its complaint, Match Group claims Google “illegally monopolized the market for distributing apps” on Android by forcing apps to use Google’s own billing system and then taking a cut of the payments. Match Group’s complaint plays off an earlier lawsuit Epic Games filed against Apple in 2020.
Adobe announced the latest online inflation data from the Adobe Digital Price Index (DPI), powered by Adobe Analytics. In April 2022, online prices increased 2.9% year-over-year (YoY), down from the record 3.6% YoY increase in March – a decrease of 0.5% month-over-month (MoM). While this marks the 23rd consecutive month of inflation online YoY, April shows early signs of online price increases beginning to slow. Over half of the categories tracked by the DPI (10 out of 18) saw MoM price decreases in April.
The Bank of America Institute released its findings from its first Small Business Checkpoint, a new publication which aims to provide a holistic and real-time estimate of Small Business financial activity, spending and financial well-being, leveraging the breadth and depth of Bank of America proprietary data from its approximately three million small business households. Small Business aggregate credit and debit card spending was up 16% year-over-year in April; within this, April growth in credit card spend (20%) outpaced growth in debit card spend (12%).
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen believes the U.S. financial system is in working order, but that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s Covid-19 lockdowns are making some goods more expensive. Yellen, set to testify before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday, said she and other top financial regulators wouldn’t be surprised to see market turbulence keep up into the summer. “There is the potential for continued volatility and unevenness of global growth as countries continue to grapple with the pandemic,” Yellen said.
Economists, CEOs, Wall Street and Main Street are sounding the recession alarm bell. Most agree a recession could start to take shape in the United States over the next few months. The question is what shape that recession will take. Recessions and recoveries come in shapes and sizes as varied as the alphabet. Perhaps that's why economists have come to name different kinds of economic downturns after letters.
“We had a strong start to the year, with financial results that exceeded our financial outlook for the quarter,” said Philip Fayer, Nuvei’s Chair and CEO. “Total volume, revenue, and Adjusted EBITDA grew 42%, 43%, and 40%, respectively over the first quarter of 2021, as we continued advancing our strategic initiatives. It was an excellent quarter despite revenue headwind of $7 million from unfavorable changes in foreign exchange rates year-over year. The prospects for our business are strong and we are very well-positioned for sustainable and profitable growth."
Marqeta, Inc., the global modern card issuing platform, reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2022. Total processing volume (TPV) was $37 billion for the quarter, with net revenue of $166 million. This represented an increase of 53% and 54%, respectively, from the same quarter of 2021. Gross profit of $75 million during the quarter grew 50% year over year, resulting in a margin of 45%. GAAP net loss was $61 million and Adjusted EBITDA loss was $10 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2022.
"The momentum we established in 2021 continued to build in the first quarter of 2022 driven by strong growth in each of our business segments," said Tom Priore, Chairman and CEO of Priority. "Priority’s modern commerce platform is being embraced by customers in SMB, B2B and Enterprise payments and our results – particularly through the recent economic turbulence – clearly demonstrate our strong competitive positioning that can continue to achieve industry leading performance."
Adyen, the global financial technology platform for leading businesses, announced it has expanded upon its partnership with one of the leaders in Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL), Afterpay Limited. Afterpay is working with Adyen to process payments across key markets including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Europe, U.S., and the U.K. to support the company’s global growth and momentum. Adyen's global reach and focus on enterprise businesses as an acquirer provides Afterpay with the capability needed for its fast growing business.
At Square’s sixth annual partner and developer conference, Square Unboxed, the company announced a number of new developer tools, including the highly anticipated Cash App Pay for developers. Cash App Pay extends the benefits of the innovative new checkout experience to Square’s developer and partner ecosystem via Square’s Web Payments SDK. Developers can add the payment method to their Square-powered online checkout flow with just a few lines of code.
Fiserv, Inc. has experienced strong growth in its credit union segment as it has continued to support credit union clients and their members through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. In a rapidly shifting environment, credit unions have built the foundation for success with Fiserv core processing platforms, whether they have moved to Fiserv from other providers, renewed relationships or sustained their growth by transitioning from one Fiserv core to another.
KeyBank today announced that it has acquired GradFin, one of the nation's leading Public Service Loan Forgiveness counseling providers. The acquisition furthers Key's commitment to accelerate growth through targeted investments in digital, niche businesses. Founded in 2015 and based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, GradFin offers high-touch advisory solutions for individuals seeking assistance with student loan debt. GradFin experts provide one-stop-shopping for borrowers seeking debt solutions, with a particular focus on working with financial advisors and their clients.
As part of its drive to expand its financial services offering, global cloud-based payments provider Checkout.com announced its intent to acquire digital identity verification (IDV) startup, bubble. The deal—slated to close later this year pending regulatory approval—comes amid the continued growth of online transaction volumes around the world, and the concurrent increased risk of fraud and money laundering. It also supports Checkout.com's mission to enable businesses and their communities to thrive in the digital economy.
Huntington National Bank, a subsidiary of Huntington Bancshares, Incorporated announced it has acquired Digital Payments Torana, Inc. (Torana), a business-to-consumer payments fintech based in San Francisco. Torana's digital payments solution, which will launch as Huntington ChoicePay, will further enhance Huntington's digital capabilities and advance Huntington's enterprise payments strategy.
PSCU, the nation’s premier payments credit union service organization (CUSO), announced that it has completed the acquisition of Juniper Payments, LLC from PITECO S.p.A. and two principal owners, who will continue with the company under PSCU. Headquartered in Wichita, Kan., Juniper Payments, LLC (“Juniper”) is the largest cloud-based non-bank third-party provider of inter-bank transaction and reporting systems in the United States.
The global economy’s digital transformation is accelerating, and community and regional banks are seeking ways to offer the most advanced digital capabilities and open new channels for distribution. To help these financial institutions meet the growing need for digitally-native banking experiences and grow their client base, FIS® has announced a new embedded finance offering developed in partnership with Treasury Prime.
American Express and Versapay announced a new agreement to provide suppliers who utilize the functionality of American Express virtual cards with access to Versapay’s world-class collaborative accounts receivable (AR) network of buyers and suppliers. Through Versapay’s leading AR automation solution American Express is helping suppliers to increase efficiency, accelerate cash flow, and dramatically improve customer experiences in the invoice to cash cycle.
Worldline, a global leader in payments services, is partnering with IVS Group, the Italian leader and the second largest player in Europe in automatic and semi-automatic vending machines, to maximize the acceptance of cashless transactions. France and Italy are the first countries where Worldline and IVS roll out their offering, before making the solution available to the whole European market.
ACI Worldwide, the global leader in mission-critical, real-time payments software, and NORBr, the leading global payment services distributor platform for digital merchants, and leading payment services marketplace for digital merchants, have announced a partnership. The collaboration allows merchants to connect to ACI’s merchant solutions, including ACI Secure eCommerce, ACI Omni-Commerce and ACI Fraud Management for Merchants.
“We’re delighted to be named as an official BigCommerce preferred technology partner as we continue to work together to create a new era of ecommerce,” says Ken Serdons, Mollie CCO. “For small- and medium-sized ecommerce businesses, building high-conversion webshops has never been more important. Together, BigCommerce and Mollie offer our customers an outstanding, localised ecommerce experience – from first touch to checkout. We look forward to our partnership going from strength to strength.”
Signifyd, the market leader in ecommerce fraud protection, has announced it will be DNA Payments’ exclusive integrated fraud protection technology, signaling Signifyd’s expanding role in serving as the fraud solution provider for future-focused payment service providers. “DNA Payments’ selection of Signifyd as a fraud solution for its customers demonstrates the market’s confidence in Signifyd’s commerce protection technology,” Signifyd CEO and Co-founder Raj Ramanand said.
