This is part three of an ongoing series focused on the financial and payments-related repercussions of the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian military. Part 1 | Part 2
Imagine all the upheaval currently in the U.S. economy, and the massive challenges we are facing to best address them. Now imagine that, but over half our country is being bombed. No doubt a scary thought. Yet the people of Ukraine do not need to imagine such a scenario. Instead, they imagine what they can do to prevent the crumbling pieces of their society from falling through their hands. And they are indeed succeeding in important ways, a surprise perhaps to some but perhaps not to many Ukrainians. How have they been resilient? Particularly from a consumer confidence and fintech perspective? Pragmatic central banking practices, rapid digitization of services and businesses, and strong support from Europe have all been key in keeping the civilian and military engines of Ukraine churning as Russian troops have taken roughly a fifth of the country.
Buy Now, Pay Later installment plans have become popular among consumers seeking to spread out the cost of big-ticket purchases. But now, rising prices have some cash-strapped shoppers reaching for these alternative payment methods for everyday purchases, such as their daily coffee, gas station fill-up or grocery run, as well. Thatâs a concern for economists and consumer advocates, who say the surge in the use of these services, coupled with a lack of transparency and little regulatory oversight, leaves them wondering just how much debt Americans are actually getting into.
Deluxe Corp. announced on Thursday a deal with Dupaco Community Credit Union to process transactions for its business clients using its First American by Deluxe service. The Madison, Wis.-based credit union has more than 120 business clients. The service will also be made available to new Dupaco business customers, Deluxe says. The deal is an outgrowth of Deluxeâs strategy to become a payments company, a Deluxe spokesperson says.
Stripe announced that Revolut will use Stripe to support payments in the UK and Europe and accelerate its expansion into new markets. Founded in 2015, Revolut has rapidly become one of Europeâs great fintech success stories. After launching in the UK with money transfer and exchange services, the company now offers dozens of productsâfrom accounts and insurance, to trading and invoicingâthat improve money management for 18 million customers and 500,000 businesses in more than 200 countries and territories.
Last week, Bob Carr, founder of Beyond, announced he would step out of his role as CEO while remaining the Executive Chairman of the Board. He has appointed Mike Peters as the company's new CEO and President. Peters, who brings 38 years of industry experience and formerly served as the CEO and SEVP of TSYS Merchant Solutions, will also sit on the Board of Directors. As CEO and President, Peters will assume management of the company's day-to-day operations, leading Beyond as it continues to grow.
Toast, the all-in-one digital technology platform built for restaurants, announced that it has acquired Sling, a leading employee scheduling, communication and management solution. Through features including scheduling templates, in-app messaging and multi-location team management, Sling helps restaurants staff more efficiently and better manage labor costs, and helps increase employee job satisfaction.
May require account to read. A hot job market is prompting some large banks to raise their minimum wages, continuing a trend that will likely force many smaller competitors to pay up for employees. The latest bank to increase the low end of its pay scale is Truist Financial, which said Wednesday that it will raise its minimum hourly wage for U.S. employees to $22 starting in October, up from a prior range of $15 to $18. Truistâs announcement followed Bank of Americaâs just-enacted $22 minimum hourly wage, which the bank plans to raise to $25 by 2025.
Binance.US, the U.S. partner of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, named former PayPal Holdings executive Jasmine Lee as its chief financial officer on Thursday. Lee most recently served as the CFO and chief operating officer of investing application Acorns. Before that, she spent eight years at PayPal in top executive roles. Her appointment comes at a time when investors have been dumping digital assets on fears that aggressive interest rate hikes from global central banks would spark an economic slowdown.
The cold winds of crypto winter keep blowing. On Tuesday, cryptocurrency lender Voyager Digital filed for bankruptcy, becoming the latest crypto company to falter since the market began to crash in April. A buying, trading and lending platform, Voyager Digital is estimated to have between $1 billion and $10 billion in both assets and liabilities.
A lawsuit that was filed against one-click checkout startup Bolt by one of its biggest customers will be dismissed as the two parties have agreed on a settlement, the companies announced jointly. And interestingly, that same customer â Authentic Brands Group (ABG) â is now a shareholder of the company. âWeâre putting our differences behind and finding a path forward,â he told TechCrunch. âSo it was settled on amicable terms for both sides.â
Klarna is in talks to raise new equity at a valuation as low as $6 billion, a fraction of the $45.6 billion it commanded last summer as it became Europeâs most valuable startup, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The buy-now, pay-later giant is in talks with investors about the new funding round, said some of the people, asking not to be identified discussing a private matter. The $6 billion figure is drastically lower than the $15 billion mark reported as being negotiated last month.
After selling its Russian Pizza Hut franchises in May, Yum Brands announced this week that it is close to selling its Russian KFC biz to a local operator. The company, which has about 1,000 KFC locations in the country, will completely exit the Russian market once the KFC transaction is complete. While many companies have already paused or suspended business in Russia, others are leaving altogether.
A new survey reveals generational differences in how consumers view the metaverse as a retail channel. Eighty-percent of surveyed Gen Z respondents are âfamiliarâ with the metaverse and 51% have participated in it through gaming, purchasing non-fungible tokens (NFTs), or other activities, according to the new Retail Metaverse Report from operations platform Zipline. While surveyed millennials have comparable levels of familiarity with the metaverse (84%), their participation rate is much lower (37%).
The deal, announced Wednesday, will give Amazon's paying subscribers the option to sign up for a free one-year Grubhub+ membership (normally $9.99 a month) and receive unlimited free deliveries when they order from restaurants listed on the service. At the same time, Amazon could become a stakeholder in Grubhub (GRUB)âs business.
Kohlâs Corporation announced July 1 that it has called off negotiations with Franchise Group (FRG), whose holdings include The Vitamin Shoppe and Pet Supplies Plus. Citing âmarket volatility,â the Kohlâs board of directors unanimously determined to conclude its strategic review process. The current financing and retail environment was reflected in the price and terms of FRGâs most recent proposal, which was not fully executable or complete, according to a news release from the department store retailer.
In an aggressive response to the Federal Trade Commissionâs lawsuit last week over fraudulent money transfers, Walmart vowed to fight the federal agency and sought to reassure customers about the benefits of its services. The nationâs largest retailer laid out a lengthy rebuttal to the FTCâs case in several online posts, pointing to the agencyâs failure to acknowledge its own governmental finding in 2018 that Walmartâs money transfer partner MoneyGram International operated a faulty fraud-blocking system. Much of the retailerâs response revolved around shifting the focus to that partner.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on Thursday handed down new data privacy and cybersecurity regulations to dictate how companies can use and share credit reports and background reports under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Credit reporting companies and users of credit reports âhave specific obligations to protect the publicâs data privacy,â the CFPB press release said, adding there is âpotential criminal liability for certain misconduct.â
The Bank of Englandâs Financial Policy Committee called for âenhanced regulationâ of the crypto asset market to mitigate against potential risks. Noting recent market turmoil, the committee said crypto assets don't pose a threat to the wider financial system yet, but they might in the future as they become more integrated into mainstream finance, according to meeting summary notes published Tuesday. The committee focuses on the central bank's role in maintaining financial stability.
The Marriott International hotel chain has confirmed that it has been hit by yet another data breach that exposed staff and customer information in another unfortunate security incident for a company that was affected by a number of major hacks in recent years. In the latest incident, first reported by DataBreaches.net, hackers are reported to have stolen around 20GB of data, including confidential business documents and customer payment information, from the BWI Airport Marriott in Baltimore, Maryland.
According to Mastercard SpendingPulse, which measures in-store and online retail sales across all forms of payment, U.S. consumer retail spending excluding automotive increased +9.5% year-over-year (YOY) in June, while retail sales excluding auto and gas rose +6.1% YOY. Rising pricesâparticularly for necessities such as food and fuelâwere a contributing factor, as Mastercard SpendingPulse reflects nominal spending and is not adjusted for inflation.
The Federal Reserve was worried that inflation may become so intrenched in the U.S. economy that the public would question its resolve to fight it, minutes of its June policy meeting revealed Wednesday, as it unveiled the biggest hike in three decades and argued for more "restrictive" rates over the coming months. The minutes indicated that a larger-than-expected rate hike was needed in June in order to tame the fastest inflation in four decades, noting that the outlook for consumer price increases had deteriorated leading up to the June 15 decision.
The U.S. services industry slowed less than expected in June, but a measure of services employment dropped to a two-year low, suggesting that demand for labor could be ebbing as the Federal Reserve's aggressive monetary policy stance leaves the economy staring at a recession. The Institute for Supply Management said on Wednesday its non-manufacturing activity index slipped to 55.3 last month from a reading of 55.9 in May.
The Bank of America Institute published a new article which shows consumer spending continues to demonstrate some signs of resiliency despite a backdrop of rising inflation. Total aggregated Bank of America credit and debit card spending was up 11% year over year in June, compared to 13% and 9% in April and May year over year respectively. Spending growth per household increased 3.3% year over year in the 28 days prior to June 30.
Adyen, the financial technology platform of choice for leading companies, has been chosen by Fast Retailing, operator of UNIQLO, to power payments for the brandâs in-store and online checkout in multiple markets. The integration with Adyen removes the need for multiple supplier contracts, allowing UNIQLO to easily consolidate and reconcile payments information across multiple channels.
The largest online payment company in Finland, Paytrail, and Mastercard announce that their collaboration has reached new heights as theyâre now enabling more than one million open banking payments every month, led by European open banking leader Aiia, a Mastercard company. Since 2019, Paytrail and Aiia have been collaborating to accelerate open banking powered payments in the eCommerce checkout flow.
Worldline is helping its e-commerce clients enter the growing Chinese market. More than 1.38 million Chinese people already order products from other countries. The key to this important user group is the omnipresent lifestyle tool, Weixin (the mainland Chinese version of WeChat). Through a mini program that integrates merchants into the social platform, seamless access and user-friendliness is guaranteed. Worldline facilitates this integration and ensures that Weixin payments are widely accepted.
BigCommerce, a leading Open SaaS ecommerce platform for fast-growing and established B2C and B2B brands, announced it has grown its European presence into Austria, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and its Latin American presence into Peru. With its latest expansions and fully localized tech and agency partner ecosystem, BigCommerce will enable merchants of all sizes and complexities to build and scale their online businesses to deliver seamless shopping experiences to local and cross-border customers and drive revenue.
Popular, Inc. announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Banco Popular de Puerto Rico (âBPPRâ), has completed its previously announced acquisition of certain assets and assumption of certain liabilities used by Evertec Group, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Evertec, Inc., to service certain BPPR channels. As a result of the closing of the transaction, BPPR acquired from Evertec Group certain critical channels, including BPPRâs retail and business digital banking and commercial cash management applications.
"The mission of Zuza has always been to provide a single omnichannel platform for our merchants, eliminating the need for 3rd party apps and unwanted costs. These new features give our existing customers even more benefits while also allowing our software to reach more business verticals that utilize membership programs or subscriptions." said Danny Mikhail, CEO, and founder of Zuza.
Chargebacks911, the leading dispute technology specialist that powers chargeback remediation for the largest global eCommerce businesses, as well as the world's financial institutions, has achieved the milestone of 1,000 integrated data connections and ingestible file types through its innovative, and highly automated plug-in-and-play platform.
Till Payments has announced its partnership with Alipay+ to provide a payment solution for Australiaâs higher education sector, Till Education, which will enable international students to use their Alipay+ wallet. The partnership seeks to simplify tuition payments for international students enrolled in Australian universities, while also integrating the payment solution into popular campus commerce systems.
