In our newest interview, TSG sat down with Zuza CEO, President, and Founder Danny Mikhail to learn more about what he and Zuza have been hard at work on since our last interview over two years ago. read about Zuza's SuperApp →
Shopify, known best as the one-stop-shop platform for online businesses, is making big moves in offline payments, too. The Canadian-founded company recently debuted a new offline payments device called Shopify POS Go, a mobile piece of equipment with a built-in barcode scanner that allows merchants to do checkouts anywhere in store. In the first half of 2022, sales made by merchants using Shopify’s point-of-sale grew nearly 60% from a year ago.
Big picture, credit card use will grow strongly over the next three years based on convenience and value to customers. It will continue taking share from cash and check, while competing handily for digital payments alongside other emerging modalities such as P2P, open banking rails, and even crypto. The degree of growth experienced will depend on how well companies in the space can capitalize on emerging technologies to meet customer needs.
The Federal Reserve on Monday voted to finalize a proposal to clarify a rule requiring more than one debit card network be available for routing all transactions, including those online. In a statement on the 6-1 vote to finalize the rule, the Fed said “that debit card issuers should enable at least two payment card networks to process all debit card transactions, including ‘card-not-present’ transactions, such as online payments.
Visa Inc., the world leader in digital payments, shared an updated look at how fraud has evolved since the height of the pandemic, with criminals simultaneously targeting online and offline vulnerabilities as our daily lives return to a blend of in-person and e-commerce experiences. “As in-person commerce returns to pre-pandemic levels, crooks are back to exploiting the physical points of vulnerability in stores, while continuing to capitalize on e-commerce through malware, ransomware and phishing attacks, among others,” said Paul D. Fabara, Chief Risk Officer at Visa.
Check usage continues to decline for business-to-business (B2B) payments in U.S. and Canada (North America), falling to an all-time low of 33% since AFP began tracking this data in 2004, according to the 2022 AFP Digital Payments Survey, underwritten by J.P. Morgan. B2B check payments have dropped 9 percentage points in North America since 2019. This is consistent with the steady deadline in check usage reported by organizations over the past two decades.
This year, we opened up the list to include women who run stock exchanges. Adena Friedman, president and CEO of Nasdaq, and Lynn Martin, president of New York Stock Exchange, are making their debut on the list. Coming back onto the list in a new position is Thasunda Brown Duckett, who took over the top job at financial services firm TIAA in 2021. Duckett is now only one of two Black women CEOs currently running a Fortune 500 company.
The tumultuous saga of Elon Musk’s on-again off-again purchase of Twitter took a turn toward a conclusion Tuesday after the mercurial Tesla CEO proposed to buy the company at the originally agreed-on price of $44 billion. Musk made the surprising turnaround not on Twitter, as has been his custom, but in a letter to Twitter that the company disclosed in a filing Tuesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It came less than two weeks before a trial between the two parties is scheduled to start in Delaware.
Prosus has scrapped the $4.7 billion acquisition of BillDesk it announced last year, once stated to be the European technology giant’s largest, saying “certain conditions” were unfulfilled in a surprising move a month after the proposed acquisition received from the local antitrust watchdog the approval to proceed.
Rapid Finance, a Maryland-based fintech that provides financing options to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), has acquired digital lending technology provider Thrive for an undisclosed sum. Designed for banks, non-bank lenders and credit unions, Thrive’s end-to-end digital lending tech boosts operational efficiencies in the origination and underwriting processes for both SMEs and consumers.
Tally Technologies Inc., the developer of an app that helps users more easily pay off credit card debt, today announced that it has secured a $80 million late-stage funding round. The Series D funding round was led by Sway Ventures. Menora Mivtachim, Kleiner Perkins, Andreessen Horowitz, Shasta Ventures and Cowboy Ventures participated as well. The investment reportedly triples the startup’s valuation to $855 million.
The nation’s retail groups are applauding a move by the Federal Reserve that will help level the payment processing field for online and in-store transactions. The Federal Reserve has approved regulations that clarify that banks and credit card networks are legally required to give retailers a choice between two unaffiliated networks over which to route debit card transactions regardless of whether purchases take place in-store or online.
Why are retailers offering holiday deals in October? Retailers are responding to consumer demand by starting deals and promotions for winter holiday merchandise earlier in the year. That also allows consumers to spread out their budget over a longer period of time and search for the best deal for their holiday purchases.
Most merchants expect this year’s holiday sales to outdo their 2019 numbers, but not necessarily those from holiday 2021, which was a record year for most, leaving many optimistic but also cautious about profits. One way retailers are tackling excess inventory this upcoming holiday is through promotions. The report found that 32% of respondents will increase the number of promotions.
Bricks-and-mortar store owners are emerging from the pandemic with surprising strength, posting some of their best numbers in years and plotting expansions as more Americans venture out to buy things again. U.S. retail vacancy fell to 6.1% in the second quarter, the lowest level in at least 15 years, while asking rents for U.S. shopping centers in the quarter were 16% higher than five years ago.
Incidents of fraud and scams are occurring more often on the popular peer-to-peer payment service Zelle, according to a report issued Monday by the office of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, giving the public its first glimpse into the growing problems at Zelle. The report also found that the large banks that partly own Zelle have been reluctant to compensate customers who have been victims of fraud or scams.
Merchants will soon have the ability to surcharge on credit card transactions to offset credit card processing fees, and nearly one in five (19%) small businesses are considering it, found a new survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB). As a result of a recent class action settlement, Visa and Mastercard will give small businesses the power to add a surcharge on some credit card transactions starting October 6, 2022, to offset their merchant fees.
The Axe the Card Tax campaign - with trade bodies including the British Retail Consortium, the Federation of Small Businesses, the Retail Charity Association, the British Independent Retailers Association and the Association of Convenience Stores - claims UK businesses are losing £5bn every year to the major card schemes, with the pandemic accelerating the trend towards cashless payments.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission said the reality TV star had received $250,000 for advertising the cryptocurrency, without disclosing she had been paid to do so. She also agreed not to promote crypto asset securities for three years. Her lawyer told BBC News: "Ms Kardashian is pleased to have resolved this matter with the SEC." Ms Kardashian, boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr, basketball player Paul Pierce and EthereumMax's creators were sued by investors in January.
Two principal economists painted very different pictures Thursday of what the global economy will look like in the coming years. Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, told an audience at Georgetown University on Thursday that the IMF is once again lowering its projections for global economic growth in 2023, projecting world economic growth lower by $4 trillion through 2026.
America’s national debt has climbed north of $31 trillion for the first time, a milestone that comes at a time of historically high inflation, rising interest rates and growing economic uncertainty. The nation’s total public debt outstanding closed at $31.1 trillion on Monday, according to Treasury Department data published Tuesday. The US government went on a borrowing spree during the Covid-19 pandemic to help shore up the nation’s economy as the deadly virus upended lives, labor markets and supply chains.
Think of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell as a gymnast sprinting across the mat, spiraling, turning, churning, then twisting through the air and trying to make sure he still lands perfectly on his feet.That’s monetary policy in this era of rapid inflation, swooning economic growth and heightened fears over what could go wrong. Powell is that gymnast, standing on the economic version of an Olympic mat, and having to make sure everything goes right.
While this transaction is expected to support Ingenico in its transformation plan, it also marks a new important milestone in Worldline’s strategy. It will simplify the Group’s structure and further increase the focus on core payment services. The proceeds from this disposal will allow Worldline to further accelerate its next development phase and to anchor the Group’s leadership in payments services.
Despite headwinds from supply chains, inflation and labor shortages, small business owners are forecasting a strong year ahead, according to the 2022 Women & Minority Business Owner Spotlight, a new report from Bank of America exploring the outlook of entrepreneurs nationwide. The report is based on a survey of more than 1,300 small business owners across the country, with additional insights into gender and ethnicity, and found that revenue expectations rose to a seven-year high, and expansion plans increased significantly since the spring.
Xplor Technologies, announced that Pamela Joseph has been appointed its Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Pam is currently Executive Chairperson at Xplor and will transition into the CEO role to replace Floris de Kort, who has stepped down for personal reasons to move back to Australia. With over three decades of experience leading and advising innovative technology companies, Pam is known for her execution-driven approach and her ability to successfully scale organizations.
i3 Verticals, Inc. announced the acquisition, effective October 1, 2022, of a leading provider of enterprise software solutions for the motor carrier and motor vehicle markets in the U.S. States and Canada. The total consideration paid for the acquisition was approximately $85 million. The Company currently expects the acquisition to be accretive to pro forma adjusted diluted earnings per share. The Company will discuss this acquisition in further detail during its upcoming fourth quarter and year-end earnings call in November.
As people open new accounts and make faster purchases, merchants are challenged to verify identities and manage evolving fraud threats in real time. To meet these needs, Mastercard and Ravelin, a leading machine learning fraud platform, have joined forces to deliver an enhanced fraud solution. Incorporating digital identity verification capabilities from Ekata and real-time fraud insights from Ethoca, Ravelin will help merchants validate a consumer’s identity without adding friction to the process.
In South Korea, there are about 7.3 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) — defined as firms with less than 250 employees. Their workforces combined make up 83.1% of all corporation employees in the country, totaling about 17.1 million people, according to OECD data. To help meet SMEs’ financial needs in the country, Seoul-based fintech startup Korea Credit Data (KCD) said Thursday that it has raised $24.7 million in Series D extension financing.
Adyen, the global financial technology platform of choice for leading businesses, is pleased to announce that Adyen is now offering open banking on its single platform. This pay-by-bank solution was realized in partnership with Tink, an open banking platform that enables financial institutions, fintechs and startups to build financial products and services.
Discover Global Network, the payments brand of Discover, will facilitate payments for TYDEi’s new healthcare vendor management system, thereby digitizing and streamlining payments in an industry where 85 percent of healthcare purchasing is done manually via paper checks. This partnership will contribute to improved solutions addressing the nearly $40 billion in waste and inefficiencies associated with healthcare invoicing.
MoneyGram International, Inc., a global leader in the evolution of digital P2P payments, and Jingle Pay, a financial super-app based in the UAE, announced a partnership to enable convenient and fast global money transfers through the Jingle Pay app. Consumers in the UAE can use the Jingle Pay app – powered by MoneyGram's global payment rails and near real-time capabilities – to send money to over 200 countries and territories around the world.
Square and Hello Alice unveiled a new study to outline the challenges and opportunities faced by Hispanic-owned small businesses and to provide resources to meet their needs. Hello Alice, the free platform helping over one million small businesses grow, released this latest survey report in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. The survey was conducted in partnership with Square, the technology company helping sellers of all sizes run and grow their businesses, and The United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC).
Zuza announced the opening of Zuza Marketplace within their Super App platform with the launch of two new apps, Marketing Pro and Connect for QuickBooks Integration. The Zuza Marketplace is now available for merchants and will provide a platform to bring merchants and developers together, expanding the functionality of the software and offering premium tools and integration of 3rd party software.
BlueSnap, a global payment orchestration platform whose embedded payments solution is used by many leading SaaS platforms, today announced Letus has selected BlueSnap to power payments for their cloud-based platform for the property rental market. With BlueSnap's embedded payments solutions, Letus can seamlessly facilitate global payments and provide greater flexibility for rental transactions.
SpotOn, the top-rated software and payments partner for restaurants, announced SpotOn Teamwork, the industry’s most comprehensive labor management solution designed to save operators hours of administrative work each day. Teamwork integrates and streamlines the industry’s most comprehensive suite of tip distribution models, extensive employee scheduling capabilities, streamlined payroll options, and employee app access, all with a two-way sync to the point-of-sale.
Afterpay, a leader in “Buy Now, Pay Later” payments, introduced a new payment solution that give consumers even more choice, flexibility and time to pay, with transparent terms to support responsible spending - just in time for the busy holiday shopping season. “Our new offering is a natural extension of the Afterpay experience - giving customers a new way to take more control and have more choice in the way they pay,” said Lee Hatton, head of Cash App Asia Pacific.
OTT Pay, a leading Canada-based FinTech payment service provider, today launched OTT Pay Checkout to provide online merchants with a customized and integrated solution for receiving payments from global buyers through a wide range of payment methods. OTT Pay Checkout empowers businesses by connecting merchants with customers from all over the world and allowing them to accept payments from a variety of payment methods through a single, simple integration.
