A collection of our most popular payments insights
As the year begins to wind down, we thought you might enjoy a round-up of some of the hottest payments content TSG has released in 2021. Visit the collection →
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Days after Jack Dorsey resigned as CEO of Twitter, his other company is changing its name. Square, the digital payments company Dorsey co-founded and remains at the helm of, announced on Wednesday that it is rebranding as "Block." Block will represent the corporate parent of Square (SQ), which will remain the name of the business that provides software and services to sellers. "We built the Square brand for our Seller business, which is where it belongs," Dorsey said in a statement. "Block is a new name, but our purpose of economic empowerment remains the same."
Merchant services company Stax has acquired CardX LLC, a Chicago-based surcharging provider, in an effort to better meet demand for surcharging, especially among enterprise clients. Terms were not disclosed. The deal is the third of 2021 for Orlando, Fla.-based Stax, whose parent company is Fattmerchant . Founded in 2013, CardX has made surcharging programs its central focus. “One of our fastest-growing segments at Stax is our enterprise segment, which has an increased demand for handling the regulatory requirements associated with surcharging,” Suneera Madhani, chief executive and cofounder of Stax, says.
‘Tis the season to buy. Or, increasingly, buy now and pay later. Purchases through buy now, pay later platforms like Klarna and Affirm were up more than 20% from last year on Cyber Monday, according to a new report from Adobe Analytics. Most of the uptick in buy now, pay later has to do with the pandemic explosion in online shopping, said Sheridan Trent, research analyst at The Strawhecker Group. “If you’re doing more of your shopping online it presents more of an opportunity to use buy now, pay later,” she said.
Attorneys for Apple are asking a federal appeals court to halt an injunction that would require the tech giant to allow external payment links in its App Store. In an appeal filed on Thursday (Dec. 2) with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Apple’s lawyers argue that Apple would suffer “irreparable harm” without a stay on the injunction, which stems from the long-running legal dispute between Apple and Fortnite maker Epic Games.
In public Visa has downplayed concerns about the rise of RuPay, which has been supported by public lobbying from Prime Minister Narendra Modi that has included likening the use of local cards to national service. But U.S. government memos show Visa raised concerns about a "level playing field" in India during an Aug. 9 meeting between U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai and company executives, including CEO Alfred Kelly. Mastercard Inc has raised similar concerns privately with the USTR.
This list represents key players who stand out for delivering results in the halls of Congress, before regulators, and with the administration. Scott and his team have been instrumental in advancing ETA’s policy priorities -- including on privacy, crypto, and CBDCs. ETA’s advocacy engagement has led to incorporation of many of our principles in a recent report on stablecoins by the President’s Working Group and the crypto sprint report by federal banking regulators.
The Retail Solutions Providers Association (RSPA) and its Board of Directors announced today that President & CEO John Kirk will leave his post January 5, 2022, after a highly successful four years. Jim Roddy, currently Vice President of Marketing for the RSPA, has been named the association’s new President & CEO, also effective January 5. Kirk will facilitate the CEO transition until he departs the organization.
The top executive overseeing Facebook’s efforts to get into cryptocurrency and international money transfers quit Tuesday, further complicating the company’s efforts to gain a foothold in the fast-growing world of digital currencies and blockchain technology. David Marcus’s high-profile departure comes just months after the company began hitting walls in Washington when it relaunched its initiative to use cryptocurrency to allow its users to make payments and send money to each other without transaction fees.
London-listed money transfer group Wise is eyeing North American expansion in the new year, setting out plans to open an Austin office and add 150 people to its team on the continent. Wise’s regional expansion plan comes as the company reveals that North America revenue grew 29% to £54.2 million in the half-year ended September 30, slightly lower than overall revenue growth of 33% to £256.3 million.
Indian fintech company Slice said on Monday it had raised $220 million in a Series B funding round led by investment giant Tiger Global and private equity firm Insight Partners that valued the company at more than $1 billion. New and existing investors, including private equity firm Advent International's affiliate Sunley House Capital, investment firm Moore Strategic Ventures, Japan's Gunosy Capital and India's Blume Ventures, also participated in the round, Slice said.
TikTok is turning up the thermostat in the content monetising space with a new tips feature for creators. Users in some parts of the world will now be able to directly tip their favourite TikTok creators with payments handled by Stripe. The tips feature is part of a new suite of tools called Creator Next launched by TikTok today (1 December), aimed at helping creators with substantial followers to monetise their content. Creators will receive 100pc of their tips, with a small fee charged to tippers by Stripe to process payments.
As Americans bought gifts during the peak Thanksgiving shopping weekend, the discovery of the omicron variant made headlines and prompted action by public health officials. National Retail Federation CEO Matt Shay said Tuesday that the coronavirus strain could shake up spending patterns this holiday season and direct more dollars toward electronics, toys, apparel and other items instead of vacations and movie tickets.
Consumers have also taken action, with many starting their holiday shopping earlier in the season in fear that some items will be out of stock. As the retail industry powers through the rest of the holiday shopping season, retail executives are investing in supply chain solutions for the coming years. Many have found workarounds, such as chartering their own vessels to import goods and bringing goods into smaller U.S. ports with less congestion. While these tactics have helped from keeping shelves bare during high demand, supply chain issues aren’t going away anytime soon.
A new survey indicates customers will support local businesses that provide omnichannel means of shopping and engagement. The annual State of Local Business Report from communication and payments platform Podium indicates that consumers are looking for convenience when supporting local businesses. More than half (54%) of surveyed consumers cited "ease of doing business" as a leading reason they choose to work with a local business for the first time, second only to price; and 60% said it is as a top reason they would go back to a business after the first time, second only to price.
Megan Searfoss has been hoarding sneakers in Connecticut. Ms. Searfoss, the owner of two running stores in Darien and Ridgefield, Conn., would normally have about 3,000 pairs of shoes in stock ahead of the holiday season. But as she watched supply chain concerns in Vietnam mount this summer and into the fall, she secured a new storage facility and is now carrying around 4,100 pairs. The unpredictability this year has forced many small businesses to make buying decisions months or weeks earlier than they normally would and to tie up more of their cash in inventory, which can be risky.
How much do you think someone would be willing to pay for your credit card information on the dark web? It may surprise you to learn that the total cost is only a few dollars, and much less than the cost of your bank account. NordVPN analyzed 4,481,379 payment cards from 140 countries and found that the worldwide average cost to purchase a card was $9.70 in total. However, some countries—Hong Kong and the Philippines, specifically—may cost closer to $20, while Mexico costs a mere $2.36 on average.
The New York Federal Reserve launched a new innovation center on Monday that will support the central bank as it explores the possibility of a digital currency, assesses the financial risks associated with climate change and tackles other issues such as financial market infrastructure and regulation. The center, in partnership with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub, will help the central bank improve the current payments system, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in remarks prepared for a virtual event on Monday.
The FBI has seized 39.9 bitcoins from an alleged affiliate of the notorious REvil ransomware group, which has been tied to illicit profits of more than $200 million. The seizure occurred Aug. 3 and came to light Tuesday via a complaint for forfeiture filed by acting U.S. Attorney Chad E. Meacham in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, backed by FBI Special Agent Joshua Jacobs. It says the funds were seized from an Exodus wallet, which refers to a piece of software that manages the private keys needed to access the addresses where cryptocurrency - aka crypto - funds are being stored.
Consumers logged online Monday and spent $10.7 billion, marking a 1.4% decrease from year-ago levels, according to data released Tuesday by Adobe Analytics. This year’s tally marks the first time that Adobe has tracked a slowdown in spending on major shopping days. The firm first began reporting on e-commerce in 2012, and it analyzes more than 1 trillion visits to retailers’ websites. Despite the slowdown, Adobe expects the entire holiday season will see record-breaking e-commerce activity, as shoppers spread out their dollars over more days.
The World Health Organization declared that Omicron poses a “very high” global risk. The boss of Moderna, a vaccine-maker, warned that existing jabs may struggle against the heavily mutated new variant. Faced with the ghastly prospect of yet more lockdowns, closed borders and nervous consumers, investors have reacted by selling shares in airlines and hotel chains. The price of oil has slumped by roughly $10 a barrel, the kind of drop often associated with a looming recession.
The results of the American Express 2021 Small Business Saturday Consumer Insights Survey show that total reported projected spending among U.S. consumers who shopped at independent retailers and restaurants on Small Business Saturday reached an estimated $23.3 billion, up 18% from $19.8 billion in 2020 and an increase from pre-pandemic spending in 2019 ($19.6 billion). Over the past 12 years consumers reported spending an estimated $163 billion at small businesses on Small Business Saturday, since American Express started the movement in 2010.
A report released by payroll processor ADP on Wednesday showed private sector employment in the U.S. increased by slightly more than expected in the month of November. ADP said private sector employment shot up by 534,000 jobs in November after surging by a revised 570,000 jobs in October. Economists had expected private sector employment to jump by about 525,000 jobs compared to the addition of 571,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.
FIS became a mega payments processor after completing the $35 billion acquisition of WorldPay in 2019. It counts many banks among its clients. The company didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the Bloomberg report, and neither did Symphony. "We think this could be mildly accretive if FIS uses the potential proceeds for share repurchases," Baird analysts said in commenting on the Bloomberg report last Wednesday. "We also think it's possible these parts of Capital Markets could have slower-than-average revenue growth/lower margins."
Ingenico, a Worldline brand, announces the full commercial launch of PPaaS, its Payments Platform as a Service solution to its clients and partners. Built on a completely new cloud-based technology stack, PPaaS is a key component in the evolution of the Point of Sale (POS) into an ecosystem enabler. PPaaS is a suite of payment and commerce services that combines proprietary solutions for managing terminals with third-party applications and alternative payment methods such as Alipay.
Marqeta, the global modern card issuing platform, announced a partnership with First National Bank of Omaha (FNBO), expanding its ecosystem of partners that enable its customers to launch modern credit card programs. Consumer demand for credit cards has increased substantially this year, compared to during the height of the pandemic, with banks issuing 42 percent more credit cards to consumers in the first six months of 2021, compared to 2020, according to credit-reporting firm Equifax, Inc. Despite this increased demand, credit card technology has largely remained unchanged in decades thanks to reliance on legacy technology that is difficult to upgrade.
Capital One says it is eliminating all overdraft fees for retail banking customers. It’s the largest U.S. bank yet to end the industry practice of charging customers a hefty fee, typically $25 to $35 in each instance, for allowing transactions that exceed a customer’s balance, according to the McLean, Virginia-based lender. The move will cost the bank an estimated $150 million in lost revenue per year, according to a company spokesperson.
The OLB Group, Inc., a diversified fintech merchant services provider and Bitcoin mining enterprise, announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a portfolio of cannabidiol (CBD) merchants that will utilize the company’s SecurePay Payment Gateway to process payments. The acquired merchant portfolio has demonstrated a historical annual transaction run rate where it is anticipated to achieve an annual transaction volume of approximately $400 million in 2022, providing OLB with a significant foothold in the nearly $3 billion global CBD market while adding an accomplished and experienced sales channel to the OLB team.
The portfolio, which Bank of America has handled since 2015, has roughly $100 million in balances, according to one of the people, who asked not to be identified discussing non-public information. Spokesmen for Bank of America and Amtrak declined to comment. Travel companies, especially airlines and hotels, often rely on their co-brand cards to engender customer loyalty. Competition is heating up for the portfolios, which are often lucrative for both merchants and their bank partners.
EVO Payments, Inc., a leading global provider of payment technology integrations and acquiring solutions, and Bank of Ireland Group (“Bank of Ireland”), one of the largest financial services groups in Ireland, announced an extension of their existing exclusive referral relationship for merchant acquiring services in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. EVO and Bank of Ireland will continue to provide payment services according to the exclusive marketing alliance, which operates under the name BOI Payment Acceptance (“BOIPA”).
Payroc World Access, LLC, a global payments leader, has announced the strategic combination, through one of Payroc’s subsidiaries, with Dynamics Payments, a leading provider of electronic payment processing solutions with extensive operations in Puerto Rico and the USVI. As Payroc and Dynamics Payments continue to expand their footprint, Payroc is now able to offer Merchant Acquiring in Puerto Rico and the USVI via Dynamics Payments and Dynamics Payments can offer to its customers the full suite of solutions Payroc has developed.
ACI Worldwide, a leading global provider of real-time digital payment software and solutions, announced it is extending its partnership with PayPoint, the leading provider of innovative technology and payment services, to drive modernization of its payments business. PayPoint, a long-standing customer, will utilize ACI Acquiring, a secure and scalable solution to deliver digital innovation and capabilities to accept both traditional and alternative payment methods.
Fiserv, Inc., a leading global provider of payments and financial services technology solutions, and Goalsetter, a saving, investing and financial education platform, are partnering to enable thousands of financial institutions to bring tailored financial services to the K-12 youth market. Banks and credit unions can offer a co-branded fintech platform to the next generation of accountholders, delivering a custom debit card, wealth management options and financial education tools accessible through their digital banking platforms.
Fundbox, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered financial platform that offers small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) quick access to business credit, has raised $100 million in a Series D funding round, driving its valuation beyond $1 billion, according to a press release. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan led the funding round, which also had support from existing investors, Allianz X, Khosla Ventures and the Private Shares Fund, as well as new investors, including Arbor Waypoint Select Fund and a suite of BNY Mellon funds managed by Newton Investment Management North America.
Interac Corp. announced an agreement with Microsoft to use Microsoft Azure's cloud capabilities to securely manage the continued growth of digital transactions, enabling greater innovation and ultimately faster payments. As a central leader in Canada's payments ecosystem, Interac has seen a surge in demand for its solutions and requires a trusted, reliable and secure cloud platform to support ongoing innovation and product development. During the pandemic the company processed almost one billion Interac® e-Transfer transactions sent since the beginning of April 2020.
linked2pay announced that it has entered into an agreement with Commercial Bank of California to serve as their EDD solutions provider. "Simplifying the compliant provisioning of payments as a service is critical for our commitment now and into the future. The linked2pay platform of automated diligence tools gives our bank and TPPP partners an extraordinary advantage to provide a more streamlined access to card and ACH payment types to our mutual business customers," according to Anush Amiryants, SVP, Payments Solutions of Commercial Bank of California.
Leading smart payments provider and merchant acquiring bank, Credorax, has announced its new company identity, Finaro. Focusing on its core pillars of creating multi-dimensional solutions to simplify payments and going the extra mile for its merchants, Finaro empowers global commerce by providing the ideal solution for cross-border businesses with its cutting-edge technology and superior support.
Bluefin, the leading provider of integrated payment security products including PCI-validated Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE) and tokenization solutions for healthcare, higher education, government and non-profits, has announced a new partnership with VBO Tickets that will provide their users integrated payment processing capabilities backed by PCI-validated P2PE.
A scheme that lets Brits withdraw cash or check their bank account balances at the till in small shops without the need to buy anything or pay a fee is set to be rolled out to 2,000 shops by the end of the year. Link, the UK’s largest cash machine network, trialled a scheme called ‘Cashback Without Purchase’ for a year and now wants to roll it out across the country. Cashback trial is currently ongoing in over 1,000 locations and should be at another 1,000 sites by the end of the year.
Finologee, a fast-growing digital platform operator of robust, ready-made and compliant systems and APIs, has chosen Konsentus Verify to protect the institutions they serve with its ‘PSD2 for Banks’ platform from the risk of unauthorized third parties gaining access to valuable customer data and funds. Finologee was launched in 2017 to deliver compliant cutting-edge technology with a reliable user experience. The company serves more than 100 banks, institutions, and corporate clients.
