We surveyed nearly 1,000 U.S. consumers in November to understand spending habits, payments preferences, and opinions on emerging payment technologies this holiday season.
Earlier this week on Cyber Monday, the average Visa/Mastercard transaction was processed at a speed of 1.129967 seconds. To consumers and merchants, speed is important. To the companies involved in the processing of these transactions, speed is everything.
Every day, leading payments companies, including over 20 global payment gateways, use TSG’s GEM platform to measure their performance. The illustration below shows how transactions speeds varied as compared to the same days the previous weeks. On Cyber Monday, 89% of gateways monitored had slower transaction speeds than measured on the previous three Mondays.
Fintech startup Stripe has announced an ambitious new product today called Stripe Treasury. The company is partnering with banks to offer a banking-as-a-service API. In other words, Stripe clients will be able to provide bank accounts to their customers — the service is invite-only for now. This is part of a bigger trend called embedded finance. Essentially, instead of separating banking services from other services that you use, embedded finance products provide financial services as close as possible to the end customer in the services that they already use.
Some of the country’s biggest retailers are resurrecting a modern version of a long-retired payment option similar to layaway or rent-to-pay — buy now, pay later. With over 11 million people still unemployed due to the pandemic, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Sephora, Target and Amazon are some of the hundreds of retailers who are offering shoppers a way to parse out interest-free payments debited from a bank account over time for holiday gifts instead of forcing consumers to pay with high-interest credit cards.
“The millennials and Gen Z generation saw their parents go through an immense amount of hardship [during the financial crisis] where the American consumer was over-leveraged,” Rafe Petkovic, chief revenue officer of Columbus, Ohio-based payment solutions company Klarna, told NBC News.
Canadian processor Lightspeed POS Inc. expects its acquisition of Upserve Inc., a Providence, R.I.-based provider of cloud-based restaurant-management software, to make it more competitive in the restaurant point-of-sale business in the United States. The acquisition of Upserve for a combination of cash and stock totaling $430 million comes hot on the heels of Lightspeed’s acquisition last month of ShopKeep Inc. and expands Lightspeed’s modest footprint in the U.S. hospitality industry, bringing to its portfolio an additional 7,000 customer locations generating more than $6 billion in revenue. Overall, the deal raises Lightspeed’s merchant base to more than 100,000 locations globally.
Shopify Inc., a leading global commerce company, announced Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend results, with sales of $5.1+ billion from the more than one million Shopify-powered brands around the world. From November 27 through November 30, total sales grew by 76% from the $2.9+ billion reported for Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend in 2019, a record that was surpassed this year on Saturday, November 28, at 5:00pm ET. Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales from Shopify’s merchants, largely small and independent brands, demonstrate retail resilience—and consumers are voting with their wallets to support them.
Activist investor Starboard Value is urging ACI Worldwide Inc. to explore a sale, arguing that a takeover is more likely to create value for shareholders than the payment company’s standalone plan released last month. Starboard Managing Member Jeff Smith said in a letter to the company Wednesday that its revenue growth and margin targets are so conservative that it “seems almost impossible for management to miss.” ACI Worldwide should instead hire advisers to run a sales process, Smith said. A wide range of strategic and financial buyers would be interested in acquiring the company, he said.
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss told CNBC that bitcoin will skyrocket to $500,000 within the next decade as it surpasses gold as a store of value. The cofounders of Gemini appeared on CNBC shortly before bitcoin jumped 8.7% to a record high on Monday. The coin now trades at over $19,000, but the Winklevoss's said bitcoin still has a long way to run. "Our thesis is that bitcoin is gold 2.0, that it will disrupt gold, and if it does that, it has to have a market cap of 9 trillion, so we think it could price one day at $500,000 of bitcoin," Tyler Winklevoss said. "So at $18,000 bitcoin, it's a hold or at least if you don't have any, it's a buy opportunity because we think there's a 25x from here."
Millennials are driving a change in the traditional idea of paying by credit, and soon investors will have a way to play that trend on the U.S. markets. Financial technology company Affirm Holdings Inc. AFRM, , which allows consumers to split purchases into installments, has filed for an initial public offering, with plans to list its shares on the Nasdaq. The company argues that it’s modernizing the world of payments by offering an option to make purchases over time without incurring interest for consumers that qualify and “simple-interest” loans for others.
Amount, a new service that helps traditional banks compete in a digital world, has raised $81 million from none other than Goldman Sachs as it looks to help legacy fintech players compete with their more nimble digital counterparts. The company, which spun out from the startup lending company Avant in January of this year, has already inked deals with Banco Popular, HSBC, Regions Bank and TD Bank to power their digital banking services and offer products like point-of-sale lending to compete with challenger banks like Chime and lenders like Affirm or Klarna.
The group, composed of 27 member firms, announced Tuesday it was changing its name to Diem (the Latin term for “day”) as it gears up for the potential 2021 launch of a single, dollar-pegged stablecoin. The organization has also finalized its leadership team, which includes Dahlia Malkhi as chief technology officer, Christy Clark as chief of staff, Steve Bunnell as chief legal officer and Kiran Raj as executive vice president for growth and innovation and deputy general counsel.
U.K. challenger bank Monzo has closed a funding round with another 60 million pounds ($80.3 million), the same amount as its last funding round from June, TechCrunch reported. Monzo has now raised 125 million pounds ($167.3 million) during the pandemic. The company also now has over 4.8 million customers, including over 60,000 business users, and over 100,000 in its paid-for current accounts Monzo Plus and Monzo Premium, according to the report. The company's valuation after this funding round is now 1.2 billion pounds ($1.6 billion).
PhonePe, the digital payments unit of Walmart’s Indian e-commerce arm Flipkart, said on Thursday it would sell a stake to existing investors for $700 million, helping it fuel growth in a crowded market that includes Google and Amazon. PhonePe’s fundraising, from Flipkart investors led by Walmart, will give it a valuation of $5.5 billion, the company said in a statement. PhonePe is also using the opportunity to assert its independence from the Flipkart Group which runs a successful e-commerce business in India rivalling Amazon’s local unit.
Cybersecurity may be far from many of our minds this year, and in light of a pandemic and catastrophic economic disruption, remembering to maintain our own personal privacy and security online isn't necessarily a priority. However, cyberattackers certainly haven't given anyone a break this year. Data breaches, network infiltrations, bulk data theft and sale, identity theft, and ransomware outbreaks have all occurred over 2020 and the underground market shows no signs of stopping.
Home Depot Inc, the largest U.S. home improvement retailer, reached a $17.5 million settlement to resolve a multistate probe into a 2014 data breach where hackers accessed payment card data belonging to 40 million customers. The settlement with 46 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., stemmed from a breach between April 10, 2014, and Sept. 13, 2014, affecting customers who used self-checkout terminals at its U.S. and Canadian stores. Hackers used a vendor’s user name and password to infiltrate Home Depot’s network, and deployed custom-built malware to access customers’ payment card information.
Operation Choke Point (OCP) is an initiative kicked off in March 2013 by the Department of Justice (DoJ) Consumer Protection Working Group to stop banks and payment processors from providing financial services to merchants that were suspected of consumer fraud. Although independent ATM deployers (IADs) were not specifically indicated as targets of OCP, as cash-based payment businesses IADs have had their cash and settlement accounts closed simply because those accounts allegedly meet some of the warning signs FIs have been instructed to look for – specifically, significant fluctuation in the amount of funds flowing through the account from month to month.
For the second straight quarter, the world’s leading chief financial officers have a more positive outlook on the Chinese economy than they do for the economy of the United States. In the Q4 CNBC Global CFO Council Survey, CFOs gave an average outlook of “Modestly Improving” for China’s GDP, upgrading the world’s second-largest economy from its third quarter rating of “Stable.” The council’s outlook for the U.S. economy also improved, from “Modestly Declining” in Q3 to “Stable” in the current quarter, but still trails China. Around the world, GDP outlook was generally improved from the second and third quarter surveys.
The U.S. economy added 245,000 jobs in November— the slowest month of growth by far since the spring and a warning of problems for the recovery in the months ahead as infections surge to new heights across the country. The November unemployment rate ticked down to 6.7, from 6.9 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which releases the monthly employment report based on data it gathers during the first half of the month. Job gains were driven by a 145,000 jobs added in transportation and warehousing, with more modest growth in other industries.
In a year like no other, U.S. shoppers supported the small businesses in their communities on November 28th, making American Express’ 11th annual Small Business Saturday one of the biggest shopping days of the holiday season. The results of the American Express 2020Small 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 $19.8 billion, up from $19.6 in 2019.
Nuvei Corporation, the global payment technology partner of thriving brands, announced it has entered into a purchase agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of Base Commerce, LLC (“Base”), a leading provider of integrated payment solutions. The transaction is expected to close on or about December 31, 2020, subject to customary closing conditions. Founded in 2008, Base is a technology-driven payment processing company specializing in bankcard and ACH payment processing solutions. Base serves clients in a wide range of industries, including property management, consumer finance and collections, tolling, parking and transportation, and charitable giving.
American Express Canada recently announced the launch of Plan It™, a new feature that enables eligible Cardmembers to pay a portion of their balance in fixed monthly installments. Cardmembers now have the option to pay for purchases both expected and unexpected, over time, with more flexibility and control. Eligible Cardmembers can go online or in app to choose a qualifying amount (minimum $250) from their most recent statement to pay over time. They can choose from durations of 3, 6, 9 or 12 months, giving them more control and a payment schedule that suits their needs.
One Inc, a leading digital payments platform for the insurance industry, is pleased to announce several additions to its executive team. The new appointments include Jig Patel as president and chief operations officer (COO), Paul Schmidt as chief financial officer (CFO), Kathy Tuite as chief marketing officer (CMO), and Kevin Ostrander as chief sales officer (CSO). The C-suite expansion is the latest milestone in One Inc’s growth trajectory and follows its August acquisition of Invenger and February recapitalization by Great Hill Partners.
Mastercard appointed Craig Vosburg as chief product officer and named Linda Kirkpatrick to succeed him as president, North America, with both positions effective January 1, 2021. As chief product officer, Vosburg will lead a newly integrated products and engineering organization for the company. This includes all areas that are integral to growing Mastercard’s business and executing on opportunities in multi-rail, digital and B2B payments – consumer products, commercial products, acceptance solutions, real-time, account-to-account and push payments, processing, open banking and Mastercard Labs.
In response to an increasingly complex payment processing environment – both in terms of volume and payment type -- BHMI, a leading provider of payments software, confirmed its Concourse Financial Software Suite® supports all payment types, including traditional, card-based and non-card transactions as well as alternative payments options such as digital wallets and open banking payments. Payment volumes are beginning to rebound from the pandemic’s initial impact, and digital transactions fueled by card-not-present (CNP) debit and other non-card payments are becoming more prevalent.
SWIFT is proud to announce the activation of the world’s first live SWIFT gpi Instant connection, a new service that enables consumers and businesses to send payments in seconds across borders, around the clock via their financial institutions. Lloyds Banking Group is the first to go live with the service and the UK is the first market where it is available. Remittance payments from anywhere in the world destined for the UK routed through Lloyds can arrive in seconds with fee and foreign exchange transparency, robust security and full regulatory compliance.
New benchmark data from ACI Worldwide, a leading global provider of real-time digital payment software and solutions, revealed a 21 percent increase in eCommerce transactions globally in November 2020 compared to November 2019. This was driven by strong consumer demand for household items and services, especially those providing shipment, remote education and training, and insurance for consumer electronics. According to the data, based on hundreds of millions of eCommerce transactions from global merchants, the retail sector saw a significant increase (30%) over the five-day period from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday in 2020 compared to 2019.
Banks are in no rush to bring their employees back to the office. Last month, as novel coronavirus infection rates surged nationwide, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bancorp and M&T Bank once again delayed their target dates for large-scale office reopenings. Fifth Third Bancorp, which started to bring thousands of employees back in mid-October, halted those plans just two weeks later, citing an increase in COVID-19 cases across its 10-state footprint and subsequent school and business closures due to lockdowns.
Income Access, Paysafe’s marketing technology and services provider, has announced the release of multiple key upgrades to its award-winning affiliate marketing platform. The enhancements are designed to improve the user experience of iGaming operators and affiliates by focusing on core functionality such as navigation, mobile responsiveness and report display. The upgrades, which primarily concern the platform’s dashboard and reporting interface, have been released across all Income Access-powered affiliate programmes and reflect the Paysafe company’s ongoing efforts to gather and respond to constructive feedback from partners.
Worldline, the European market leader in payment and transaction services and #4 player worldwide, announced a partnership with P3 Financial Group, a Fintech from Helsinki, Finland and the winner of Worldline’s E-Payments Challenge Special Prize in 2019. The two companies come together to make P3’s PSAAS (Payment System as A Service) operational in 13 European countries and offering real time commerce and payment service across the market.
Digital payments transformation has accelerated in 2020, driving massive adoption and expansion of digital wallets, mobile apps and contactless payments. Helping to drive this payments revolution, Blackhawk Network announced a global suite of solutions for merchants and retailers that meaningfully connects physical and digital payments. The result: a truly seamless, omnichannel payment experience for consumers; more revenue, new customer acquisition channels and enhanced loyalty for partners.
Priority Payments Local and Valor PayTech disclosed today that they have partnered to provide integrated gateway solutions to merchants. The companies stated that Valor PayTech’s smart POS terminals coupled with Priority Payment’s award-winning support are a win-win for merchants in need of an all-in-one payment solution. The solution will enable merchants to streamline business processes and update financial technologies in a single integrated payment gateway solution.
First American Payment Systems, a leader in payment technology, announced the appointment of Chuck Springer to the position of Vice President of Information Security and Compliance. In this role, he will lead all aspects of security within the IT division, including enterprise security architecture, business continuity and disaster recovery, regulatory audits and documentation to protect First American’s assets, data and reputation.
F1 Payments, a fintech company focused on increasing business velocity for all constituents in the payments ecosystem, announced it has received a strategic recapitalization and growth investment from an affiliate of York Capital Management. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. In conjunction with the transaction, Chad Anselmo, President, has been named Chief Executive Officer. F1 Payments Founder, Shane Hibbeler, has retired from the Company. Sunil Kappagoda, a 30-year fintech executive who previously held senior leadership positions at Verifone and Boston Consulting Group, has joined F1 Payments as Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Verified Financial Identity, a Fintech company based in Tel Aviv, announced today the availability of its financial identity verification technology via FusionFabric.cloud, Finastra’s open developer platform and app store. Together, Finastra and AIO will help banks meet the heightened demand for business loans due to COVID-19 using a digital customer onboarding experience and a solid financial identity SaaS solution. “In these challenging times, banks are struggling to meet the demand for the increased volume of business loans being submitted,” said Mitch Lucas, Head, Lending, Product Management & Compliance, Finastra.
