💡 NEW: We have added a Merchant news section to NewsFilter! This will highlight the week's latest enterprise and SMB content as it relates to the payments industry. Enjoy!
In a major push for the in-store point-of-sale market, PayPal said Wednesday that it's launching its Zettle POS system in the US two years after acquiring the Swedish fintech company for $2.2 billion. PayPal is known primarily as provider of online payment services, as well as for its Venmo and Braintree product portfolio. With Zettle, PayPal will now be able to serve in-store small businesses in the US with a complete point-of-sale system and Zettle's new POS reader.
Having completed its merger with a special purpose acquisition company, Payoneer Global Inc.’s common stock and warrants began trading Monday on the Nasdaq under the symbols PAYO and PAYOW, respectively. The shares were trading at $10.82 at mid-morning, slightly up from their opening price. “We are just scratching the surface of the enormous opportunity ahead to help businesses grow and scale in the new global economy,” said Scott Galit, chief executive of the New York City-based company, in a statement.
Robinhood, a day after incurring a record-breaking fine from Wall Street's industry regulator, filed paperwork for its hotly anticipated initial public offering. The company plans to list its shares on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the symbol HOOD, according to its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As is typical for the initial IPO filing, Robinhood didn't yet indicate a target valuation or date for its public debut. The company hopes to raise $100 million by going public.
With less than 30 days until the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, Visa, the Official Payment Technology Partner of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, is unveiling its full Tokyo Team Visa athlete program roster as it prepares to support and celebrate Visa’s largest group of Olympic and Paralympic athletes to-date. Since launching the Team Visa program in 2000, Visa has championed more than 500 Olympic and Paralympic athletes and hopefuls, as part of overall efforts that empower athletes to be successful both on the field and off.
Following similar moves by Apple, Google, and more recently Amazon, among others, e-commerce platform Shopify announced it’s also lowering its cut of developer revenue across its app marketplace, the Shopify App Store, as well as the new Shopify Theme Store. The news was announced today alongside a host of other developer-related news and updates for the Shopify platform at the company’s Unite 2021 Conference, including updates to Checkout, APIs, developer tooling and frameworks, among other things.
Klarna, the leading global payments provider, retail bank, and shopping service, released its The State of Smoooth: 2021 Reopening Insights Report, exploring the current state of shopper preferences in the US across the fashion and apparel, beauty and wellness, events, fitness and outdoor, and travel sectors. The report, which features insights from consumer surveys, as well as Klarna's proprietary shopping and app data, is designed to equip retailers and brands with key information needed to best serve consumers' changing tastes and demands for the second half of 2021.
The Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI) has launched the third year of Inclusive Fintech 50 (IF50), a competition to recognize the most promising inclusive fintech startups pushing the frontiers of innovation. This year, the competition seeks to recognize early-stage fintechs that are helping low-income customers and micro- and small enterprises not just respond to the pandemic, but rebound, rebuild, and recover after the past year’s devastation.
Small business is emerging as a key driver in the U.S. economic rebound, Shopify President Harley Finkelstein told CNBC Tuesday. “What we are seeing is that entrepreneurship is now part of the global recovery story,” he said in a “Mad Money” interview with Jim Cramer. “Small business is going to lead the charge in bringing our cities and communities back to where we were pre-pandemic.” Thousands of small businesses were forced to temporarily suspend their operations or permanently close down due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
So says CEO Jeffrey Gennette, who recently spoke about Macy’s performance and changes undertaken during the pandemic at the National Retail Federation’s virtual event Retail Converge. COVID-19 unexpected impacts to the industry likely hampered the best turnarounds, but Gennette stated, “The headline is Macy’s is a healthier company coming out of the pandemic than we were going into it.” However, Gennette glossed over some of the tough choices the retailer faced in 2020, including laying off nearly 4,000 employees in June last year.
As consumers flock to online shopping, merchants are adding more check-out payment possibilities to compete for customers and avoid "cart abandonment." "Payment orchestration platforms" (POPs) provide a single digital conduit to direct and validate all transactions between merchants and customers, as well as the payments providers involved, through an application programing interface (API). The platform enables merchants to provide different payment options on their checkout which resonate with their customers more and help them in enter different markets with ease.
It’s no secret that e-comm dominated in 2020. But retailers know there’s still a lot of value in brick and mortar, and there’s space to be gobbled up—for now. Retailers are racing to grab IRL space, and for good reason: 43% of respondents to a Retail Brew/Harris Poll survey in March said they’ll mostly shop in-person post-pandemic. Less than a quarter (24%) said the same about shopping online. Many of these retailers are e-commerce players opening up stores for the first time, Lance Marine, SVP of retail services at CBRE, told us.
Development of a U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDC) could pose more risks than benefits, and may not be within the legal authority of the Federal Reserve, Board Governor Randal Quarles said in a Monday speech. "The potential benefits of a Federal Reserve CBDC are unclear," Quarles told the Utah Bankers Association’s annual convention, noting that he was speaking only for himself and not for the board. "Conversely, a Federal Reserve CBDC could pose significant and concrete risks."The U.S. dollar payment system is very good, and it is getting better," he added.
Personal data for 700 million LinkedIn users—nearly 93% of the company’s members—has been put up for sale online. Hackers have already posted a sample of the data, which included information for 1 million users, according to a report on RestorePrivacy. The data appears to be recent, with samples from 2020 and 2021, according to the report. In a statement to Fortune, a LinkedIn spokesperson disputes this, saying, "We’ve investigated, and there is no evidence that this is new data or that the data is from 2020 and 2021."
Federal prosecutors have filed seven new criminal charges against Paige A. Thompson, who's accused of breaching Capital One bank in 2019. The breach compromised the personal data of 100 million Americans, exposing hundreds of thousands of Social Security numbers. Thompson, who is free while awaiting trial and has pleaded not guilty, now faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted of the federal charges, according to a superseding indictment filed this week by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The triple-digit temperatures roasting the Pacific Northwest under a lingering heat dome are also starting to hurt the region's economy. In Portland, Oregon, temperatures forced the city's streetcar system to shut down as power cables melted and the heat strained the power grid. Near Seattle, roads cracked along stretches of a major interstate and a public pool shut because air quality was dangerous. Some restaurants closed to protect kitchen staff in a region where fewer than half of homes have air conditioning.
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week, while layoffs plunged to a 21-year low in June, suggesting the labor market recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic was gaining traction. While job cuts are easing, a shortage of willing workers is constraining hiring amid a surge in demand following a reopening of the economy made possible by coronavirus vaccinations.
After flights were largely grounded and travelers stayed home in 2020, the return to travel has become one of the most anticipated — and uncertain — activities of 2021. Today, Mastercard released Recovery Insights: Ready for Takeoff?, a view into key travel trends in the air and on the ground, around the world. While the global travel recovery remains uneven, one-fifth of countries studied have returned to at least 90% of pre-pandemic levels for domestic flight bookings.
Paysafe, announced that it has further extended its relationship with Microsoft, and is now enabling online cash transactions on Microsoft Store on Xbox through Paysafe’s leading eCash payment solution – paysafecard. paysafecard is now available on Xbox consoles for millions of customers in 22 European countries. 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.
Fiserv, Inc., a leading global provider of financial services technology solutions , has launched EnteractSM, a new, cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) platform for financial institutions. Built on Microsoft Dynamics 365, Enteract enables financial institutions to grow market share and deepen customer relationships by providing bankers with insights to customer data and activity, while streamlining service processes and customer onboarding.
Gilles Grapinet, Worldline’s Chairman and CEO, said: “The partnership with BNL through the acquisition of 80% of Axepta Italy is a further significant development in our Group consolidation strategy in Europe, extending our Merchant Services activities towards the South of Europe. Thanks to this transaction, we indeed benefit from a direct access to an existing merchants’ portfolio in the fast-growing Italian market, driven by the steady ongoing adoption of electronic payments."
Aliaswire, a provider of digital payment and credit solutions for businesses and financial institutions, today announced $6 million in new funding. The round, led by Stage 1 Ventures, is the company’s first institutional investment in its 13-year history. As part of the funding, Stage 1 Ventures Operating Partner Scott Carmel will join the Aliaswire board of directors. “Aliaswire has built a profitable, high-growth business with an extensive portfolio of innovative products, patents, and intellectual property,” said Carmel.
Rapyd, a global Fintech as a Service company, has entered today into a definitive agreement with Arion Banki (Arion Bank) to acquire Valitor, an Icelandic payments solutions company. The deal size is $100 million and subject to regulatory approval. Valitor is a well-established payments brand and considered one of Europe's payments leaders, providing both in-store and online payments acceptance solutions as well as card issuing to SMB merchants in Iceland, the U.K. and Ireland, and across Europe.
The instant merchant statement analysis and proposal service Fee Navigator has announced a major expansion of its leading-edge technology that simplifies and automates merchant acquisition and retention. The newest release empowers ISOs, ISVs, banks, consultants, and their partners to optimize and control profitability on every deal. By automating the analysis and proposal process, the industry can now standardize its workflows and create digitally native customer experiences to further accelerate growth.
Newtek Business Services Corp., an internally managed business development company (“BDC”), announced that Mr. Michael Breier has joined Newtek Merchant Solutions (“NMS”), one of Newtek’s payment processing portfolio companies, as Vice President, Independent Sales Organization (“ISO”)/Agent Development. Mr. Breier comes to NMS with over 15 years’ experience in the merchant services industry, with an extensive background in ISO management, business development and risk management.
Checkout.com, the cloud-based payment solutions provider, has been certified as a BigCommerce Technology Partner. Now, BigCommerce’s 60,000 global merchants have access to Checkout.com’s innovative payment platform. The partnership creates a compelling proposition for global merchants seeking to leverage BigCommerce’s powerful eCommerce platform with Checkout.com’s international payment capabilities.
UnionPay announced that it launched the new Mobile QuickPass service which would support UnionPay contactless payment, QR code payment and In-App payment. The new product solution will largely enhance mobile payment experience for UnionPay cardholders. This updated Mobile QuickPass enables customers to make payments in a wide range of payment scenarios, both online and offline, inside and outside Mainland China.
Cardknox, a leading developer-friendly, omnichannel payment gateway, today announced its Quick Response (QR) code capability, allowing developers and their merchants to deliver a contactless payment option that reduces friction and boosts sales. With QR code technology, merchants can improve customer satisfaction by offering a quick, safe, and secure checkout experience. Using the Cardknox API, developers can now generate unique QR codes that can be displayed on their clients' receipts or point-of-sale devices so that customers are able to make payments with ease.
JCB International Co., Ltd., the international operations subsidiary of JCB Co., Ltd. and Nets Group, the Nordic-based payment service provider, announce the latest expansion of their partnership to bolster JCB Contactless acceptance in the Nordic region. JCB cardmembers can now use JCB Contactless on 244,000 merchant POS systems across Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland.
Ripple has hired Sendi Young from Mastercard to oversee its European operations. As managing director for Europe, Young will be charged with championing the expansion of the firm's blockchain-based RippleNet network among EU institutions. With over fifteen years of experience in fintech, payments and consulting, Young joins Ripple following a five-year tenure at Mastercard, where she held leadership roles driving strategy, commercialization, bank-fintech partnerships and business development.
Certegy, a leading ACH payments and risk management company, announced the launch of its new Virtual Terminal platform, allowing both in-store and mobile merchants to process paper checks and ACH transactions. Virtual Terminal provides merchants with the option to leverage either a web browser or mobile device to serve as their POS register rather than using a bulky and expensive traditional POS system.
