TSG is updating its annual Payment Gateway Directory, an essential reference tool for intelligence on payment gateways. Last year's Directory looked at 110+ payment gateway providers from large international players, to regional startups; make sure you're included!
Klarna on Wednesday reported a dramatic jump in losses in the first half, adding to a deluge of negative news for the “buy now, pay later” pioneer. The Swedish payments firm generated revenues of 9.1 billion Swedish krona ($950 million) in the period spanning January to the end of June 2022. That was up 24% from a year ago. But the company also racked up hefty losses. Klarna’s pre-tax loss soared more than threefold year-on-year to nearly 6.2 billion krona. In the first half of 2021, Klarna lost around 1.8 billion Swedish krona.
Visa, the biggest U.S. card network company, doesn’t fear competition from the Federal Reserve Banks’ FedNow Service, or any other real-time payments system, according to Vasant Prabhu, Visa’s chief financial officer. The FedNow instant payments system, recently ballyhooed as launching by the middle of next year, will create a new speedier payments system, but that doesn’t mean consumers or businesses will necessarily use it, Prabhu said in comments this week at the Deutsche Bank Technology Conference.
Elavon, a wholly-owned subsidiary of U.S. Bank and one of the largest payments processors globally, launched talech Register for North American small business owners. talech Register is the next generation, all-in-one payments and business analytics platform that empowers small business owners to better manage their operations. “The talech platform really is about making it easier for small business owners to get the information they need to make better decisions, especially in a rapidly changing economy,” said Jamie Walker, CEO of Elavon.
With consumer spending for concessions and merchandise purchases steadily increasing at sports stadiums, SpotOn Transact, LLC, which provides point-of-sale and digital-ordering systems to 37 stadiums across the National Football League and the National Collegiate Athletic Association, is gearing up for an increase in volume for the 2022 professional and collegiate football seasons. One driver of the expected increase in volume is that spending per fan at NFL and National Basketball Association venues has grown in recent years, the company says.
It wasn’t so long ago that businesses spurned credit cards because of swipe fees. In 2013, 58% of small businesses reported they were regularly asked by customers to start accepting credit cards, according to a WePay survey cited in Forbes at the time. These days, it’s not plastic, but rather cash, that seems to be the scourge of payments. You often can’t even use cash to pay for those peanuts and Cracker Jacks at the ball game, since most MLB stadiums have gone cashless.
Three New York City pensions filed shareholder proposals with Mastercard Inc. and American Express Co. urging the credit-card companies to improve tracking of gun sales. The proposals, by the city pensions for teachers, civil servants and school administrators, asked the boards of both companies to assess and publicly report their decision-making related to the creation of merchant codes for standalone gun and ammunition stores, according to a news release from the city comptroller’s office.
Block’s (formerly known as Square) Cash App is now letting users make payments on e-commerce sites outside the Square network. Until now, users could only make payments using Cash App Pay on Square terminals or online Square merchant partners. The company has partnered with American Eagle, Aerie, Tommy Hilfiger, Finish Line and JD Sports for the launch with more merchants like Romwe, Savage x Fenty, SHEIN, thredUP and Wish coming to follow in the coming months.
Fintech firm Bespoke Financial is looking to expand its 'buy now pay later' service for cannabis businesses in California and Massachusetts later this year, its Chief Executive George Mancheril said on Thursday. The push comes after a successful pilot launch in July that allowed cannabis retail outlets to buy products from producers using the service that allows them to pay back after its sale.
In the midst of rising inflation and its impact on consumer personal savings rates, TransUnion conducted new research examining the financial status and behaviors of consumers who engage in mobile sports betting. The research found that more than half (54%) of mobile sports bettors earn high incomes—earning $100,000 or more—yet many are concerned about inflation and its impact on their ability to keep making credit payments in the future.
London-based mPOS unicorn SumUp is expanding into the B2C payments space through the launch of a digital wallet with integrated loyalty scheme. The SumUp Pay app includes a virtual Mastercard - which can be topped up using a saved card or via bank transfer - allowing users to make remote or in-person purchases enabled by Google Pay and Apple Pay, transfers and withdrawals.
Disney is looking at ways for viewers to buy themed merchandise and accessories by scanning a QR code in the Disney+ app, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. Scanning the QR code will lead users to the company’s website, where they can buy branded goods. The WSJ report suggests that Disney is looking to introduce these in-app commerce features later this year, with some Disney+ subscriber-only items such as a Darksaber toy from the first Star Wars live-action series “The Mandalorian.”
Lumen Field is opening a store featuring Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” checkout-free shopping technology and Amazon One palm-based entry and payment solution. As a result, Lumen Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks pro football franchise, will become the first NFL stadium to implement both technologies in a single store, which will be known as District Market.
When Mark Zuckerburg (aided by a sunscreen-slathered surfing avatar) introduced Meta in October 2021, companies scrambled to avoid being left behind in the metaverse. And Zuckerberg himself predicted the metaverse would do hundreds of billions of dollars in digital commerce in the next decade. Nearly one year out from Meta’s big reveal, there’s no central place where everyone’s avatars appear regularly. And nobody seems to know what exactly it would look like if it existed.
Food delivery giant DoorDash has confirmed a data breach that has left customers' personal information exposed to hackers, the company announced in a statement Wednesday. DoorDash stated that an "undisclosed number of customers had their names, email addresses, delivery addresses, phone numbers, and partial payment card numbers" stolen. In its statement, DoorDash explained that the breach was the result of a third-party vendor that was hacked through a sophisticated phishing campaign.
Data for over 2.5 million individuals with student loans from Oklahoma Student Loan Authority (OSLA) and EdFinancial was exposed after hackers breached the systems of technology services provider Nelnet Servicing. Technology services from Nelnet Servicing, including a web portal, are used by OSLA and EdFinancial to give online access students taking out a loan access to their loan accounts.
In recent years, more retailers have turned to "buy now, pay later" financing to help customers pay for goods and services. Buy now, pay later, or BNPL, programs, which are typically offered interest-free, allow customers to pay for products in installments. The programs have proven especially popular with younger shoppers who can't or don't want to use credit cards to pay for their items. Now, one BNPL firm has drawn the attention of Democrats for making it easier for consumers to use the payment plans to buy guns and ammunition.
Lower gas prices helped consumer confidence bounce back in August, breaking a three-month stretch of worsening sentiment. However this improvement, while welcome, is tempered by ongoing worries that the US economy may be heading toward a recession. The Conference Board's monthly snapshot of consumer attitudes improved, rising to 103.2 from July's downwardly revised 95.3. The August number matches the level it reached in May and marks the first time since then that the headline index broke 100, the historical baseline metric.
There were nearly 1 million more job openings than expected in July, an inflationary sign that the U.S. labor market is still extremely tight, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday. Available positions totaled 11.24 million for the month, well in excess of the 10.3 million FactSet estimate, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. The total was about 200,000 higher than the 11.04 million in June, a number revised up from the initially reported 10.7 million.
For retailers, it is a season of discontent. From Walmart Inc. to Nordstrom Inc., retailers have a glut of inventory and are discounting items to clear out space for holiday goods. Many have already lowered profit expectations for the year and are working to cut costs as consumers are pulling back spending in categories such as apparel and home goods ahead of the key year-end shopping season.
Paysafe has appointed Alex Gersh as its new Chief Financial Officer. Gersh joins the company on October 3, 2022, and will report into Paysafe CEO, Bruce Lowthers. Gersh brings to Paysafe a proven track record of over 25 years’ international financial leadership and has previously held CFO positions in public and private organizations in both the UK and U.S.A. Gersh joins Paysafe from Sportradar, the leading global sports technology company creating immersive experiences for sports fans and bettors, where he built a high performing finance function and successfully led the company’s IPO on NASDAQ in September last year.
NMI, a leading full commerce enablement technology company, has hired Robert Hoblit as its chief revenue officer (CRO) to support NMI’s scalability and growth, as well as enhance its customer success team. Hoblit brings more than 20 years of experience in software and strategy to his new role at NMI. He most recently served as CRO at DigiCert, where he accelerated growth by integrating and transforming a global sales team.
i3 Verticals, Inc., announced that Pete Panagakis has been appointed Chief Technology Officer (CTO). In this role, he will serve as the Company’s senior-most technology officer, and will help lead the Company’s delivery of integrated software and payment solutions to its thousands of customers. He will be responsible for overseeing the Company’s technology teams including enterprise-wide software engineering, architecture, infrastructure, cybersecurity, and technology operations.
Adyen, the global financial technology platform of choice for leading businesses, has announced that Pet Supplies Plus, the leading franchisor and operator of pet-specialty stores in North America, has selected the platform to power its payments online and in-store for its approximate 230 corporate locations and 400 franchisee locations in the United States. Adyen’s unified commerce solution includes a diverse terminal offering and a cohesive multi-channel reporting portal, among other benefits.
Fiserv, Inc., a leading global provider of payments and financial services technology with a growing presence in New Jersey, is partnering with Rutgers University-Newark to create and fund a new program designed to drive diversity and innovation within the financial technology field. The Fiserv-RU-N Program for Inclusive Innovation will create a center on campus that will serve as a research and incubation space for the RU-N community and local businesses, provide annual scholarships for undergraduate students over a five-year time span, and support career modules to prepare students for internships and jobs.
First National Bank of Omaha (FNBO) announces the launch of Bend by FNBO. The new credit card-as-a-service (CaaS) solution expands FNBO’s technological agility to offer customized credit card issuance for today’s digital landscape. Bend by FNBO blends modern technology with safety and expertise to supplement FNBO's already strong co-brand credit card capabilities.
Discover announced its new Advanced Analytics Resource Center (AARC) and welcomed its first cohort of 75 employees at its downtown Chicago Office called the 606. The launch of the AARC@606 advances Discover’s investment in technology and analytics as well as its commitment to bringing jobs to Chicago. Discover aims to increase access and opportunity for diverse talent to enter the technology and analytics fields through broader outreach to universities, student exploration programs, and partnerships with community and professional organizations.
Choice Inc., a leading global payments platform, and Wix.com Ltd., a leading global SaaS platform to create, manage and grow an online presence, announced a partnership enabling Wix merchants in the United States to accept ACH electronic funds transfer payments. This account-to-account payment option will give Wix’s U.S.-based merchants access to Choice’s ACH payments infrastructure, eliminating processing time and fees, and generally reducing the chances of fraud for both merchants and their customers.
Bluefin has announced a new partnership with Etix that will provide their ticketing clients integrated payment processing capabilities backed by PCI-validated point-to-point encryption (P2PE). Etix is an international web-based ticketing service provider for the entertainment, travel and sports industries, and operates in 40 countries on four continents. Etix provides secure access control ticketing infrastructure solutions, ticket marketing services, and robust Ecommerce fulfillment capabilities.
CellPoint Digital announces it has teamed up with Cybersource, a Visa solution and a recognized worldwide leader in payments management, to provide merchants with a holistic solution for fraud management capable of aggregating transaction data across multiple acquirers. The partnership is the latest in CellPoint Digital’s commitment to offering easy-to-implement solutions that help merchants with multi-acquirer relationships solve operational and technological challenges and simplify back-office complexities.
