Bank of America and TSG have released a new merchant-focused infographic to understand the trajectory of payments pre-2020, how the pandemic was a catalyst for change, and questions you should be thinking of now to set yourself up for success in the next two years.
New layers of tech are emerging and the time to plan ahead is now. Are you exploring digital experiences? Do you have the knowledge/connections you need? Do you have a strategy to embrace payment transformation? Contact us today
Visa beat estimates for quarterly profit on Tuesday as resilience in consumer spending so far and a summer travel boom across much of the United States translated into higher card spends. After being holed up at their homes, pandemic-weary Americans are splurging on travel and other leisure-related activities, helping the economy to stay on track despite an onslaught from inflation.
"We had strong revenue and earnings growth again this quarter, as overall consumer spending remained robust and cross-border volumes grew 58% versus a year ago," said CEO Michael Miebach. "Increasing inflationary pressures have yet to impact overall consumer spending significantly, but we will continue to monitor this closely." "We have a well-diversified business model and the demonstrated ability to deliver strong operating margins through up and down cycles," he added.
Two U.S. senators are preparing legislation that would give merchants power to process many Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. credit cards over different networks. The bill, which could be introduced as soon as this week, aims to create more competition among U.S. credit-card networks, a sector where Visa and Mastercard have long dominated. Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, and Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican, are expected to introduce the bill.
BTRS Holdings Inc, the owner of business payments vendor Billtrust, is exploring options that include a potential sale, according to people familiar with the matter. The Lawrenceville, New Jersey-based company is working with an investment bank as it considers its alternatives, the sources said. The sources added that a sale to a private equity firm is one of the options being examined. The sources cautioned that no deal was certain. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential information.
Accelerated by the global pandemic, first party misuse has grown significantly during the pandemic as e-commerce shopping flourished. Despite commonly being referred to as friendly fraud, for merchants, first party misuse, is anything but amicable or beneficial. It can have negative ramifications impacting all parts of our payments ecosystem. A recent report published by Cybersource found that first party misuse has become the top form of e-commerce fraud, up from the fifth-leading contributor only two years earlier.
American Express connects millions of customers and businesses around the world, and we’re proud to say that number has more than doubled since 2017 – to over 66 million businesses globally and our Card Members are taking notice. According to a recent Amex Trendex survey*, 70% of Millennial and Gen Z Card Members said they plan to use their American Express for the majority of their purchases when traveling internationally this summer.
American Banker is proud to honor the next generation of leaders in the payments industry with our second annual Most Influential Women in Payments, Next — recognizing women under 40 who have demonstrated a strong talent for leadership and an expertise in their respective fields. This award builds on the Most Influential Women in Payments listing that has run since 2013, and the Most Powerful Women in Banking, Next, which honors rising stars in the banking industry.
Payment companies have not been immune from the correction that has hit the stock market and privately held companies across almost all industries. The run-up in investments, high valuations and initial public offerings that followed the increase in digital payments in the pandemic's early stage is now correcting. That decline is being exacerbated by economic pressures such as a potential recession and geopolitical tensions.
May require account to read. Paytm was the poster boy for India’s tech startups, only to lose two-thirds of its value since its IPO and become a symbol of the industry’s crash. Now its founder promises a sharpened focus on financial performance to convince investors of the money-losing company’s prospects. The digital-payments provider is set to become India’s first internet company to hit $1 billion in annual revenue by the end of this fiscal year in March, said Vijay Shekhar Sharma, 44.
The new Amazon wallet service is currently available only to a select group of the company’s small business sellers, some of whom have been trying it in recent weeks, according to the post. Amazon Spokesperson Alyssa Bronikowski declined to say how many sellers or which ones are currently using the service. Amazon’s new offering is an “optional tool designed to give selling partners more control over how much and when to convert their funds in order to help them grow their business operations globally,” Bronikowski said by email.
MX, the startup competing against Plaid to help connect financial institutions and fintech players, is naming PayPal executive Jim Magats its new CEO, CNBC has learned. Magats, a nearly two-decade PayPal veteran who was most recently senior vice president for omni payments solutions, is set to start at Utah-based MX in mid-August, according to MX founder Ryan Caldwell.
Shares of retailers including Macy’s, American Eagle and Amazon fell Tuesday, a day after Walmart slashed its profit forecast and warned that surging prices for food and gas are squeezing consumers. The big-box retailer, which is the country’s largest grocer, said everyday necessities are eating up more of household budgets and leaving shoppers less money to spend on items they want, such as new clothing. Walmart said it will have to offer deep discounts to get rid of general merchandise, hurting its profit margins.
Retailers on life support may go the way of the dinosaur in early 2023 should the economic slowdown cause a lackluster holiday shopping season. "I think we will see a flurry of bankruptcies likely in the first quarter of 2023 if this holiday season is anything less than completely robust," Mark Cohen, former longtime CEO of Sear Canada and current Columbia University professor of retail studies, warned. "I don't think it will be, by the way."
Best Buy is opening a digital-first, small-format store on Tuesday in Monroe, North Carolina, that takes a very different approach than most of its “big box” retail locations. The 5,000-square-foot location is only about 15 percent as big as the typical 35- to 40,000-square-foot Best Buy location and is even smaller than many smaller Apple Stores, which are typically between 6,000 to 8,500 square feet.
All businesses, great and small, have at least one thing in common: payment processors. Cash-only businesses get away without having to pay a processor to complete credit card, debit and digital payments, but that type of business is rare. Accepting card payments is convenient—for you and customers—but it means there’s a risk of credit card fraud. And while point-of-sale (POS) platforms can help you better facilitate payments, they can bring their own obstacles. In a Forbes Advisor poll, 33% of small business owners said credit card fraud is a major issue. Is the risk worth the reward?
Sixty percent of breaches have resulted in companies recouping the cost of fines, clean-up, and technological improvements by increasing prices, essentially making consumers pay for breaches and companies' lack of preparedness, according to an annual report published on July 27. The "Cost of Data Breach Report 2022" report, based on a survey of executives and security professionals at 550 companies, says the average cost of a data breach continued to rise in 2022, reaching an average of $4.4 million globally (up 13% since 2020) and $9.4 million in the United States.
Two U.S. regulatory agencies that can’t agree who should be in charge of regulating crypto are both acting in completely different ways to try and oversee the industry. Still, only one of those agencies has gained the ire of the entire crypto field, specifically because it won’t back down from calling most digital asset trading “securities.” The Securities and Exchange Commission is reportedly digging into beleaguered crypto exchange Coinbase’s past, specifically trying to identify whether the company was letting people in the U.S. trade digital assets when they went unlabeled as securities.
“For over a decade, U.S. Bank knew its employees were taking advantage of its customers by misappropriating consumer data to create fictitious accounts,” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a statement Thursday. “We all must do more to hold lawbreaking companies accountable when they abuse and misuse our sensitive personal data.”
The U.S. economy shrank from April through June for a second straight quarter, contracting at a 0.9% annual pace and raising fears that the nation may be approaching a recession. The decline that the Commerce Department reported Thursday in the gross domestic product — the broadest gauge of the economy — followed a 1.6% annual drop from January through March. Consecutive quarters of falling GDP constitute one informal, though not definitive, indicator of a recession.
Americans grew even more pessimistic about the US economy over the past month, according to the latest survey on consumer attitudes, intentions and expectations from The Conference Board. The consumer confidence index for July slipped to 95.7 from June's revised reading of 98.4, which was adjusted downward by 0.3 points. It's the lowest index reading since February 2021, when levels were 95.2; however, the July number remains considerably above the deeply pessimistic readings during the Great Recession, when the index fell as low as 25.3.
"Our second quarter results were strong, with double digit organic revenue and adjusted earnings per share growth. These results put us above the high end of our full year guidance range for organic revenue growth and at the high end of our adjusted earnings per share range on a year to date basis," said Frank Bisignano, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Fiserv. "We achieved these results while continuing to invest for sustainable growth."
Mastercard has welcomed a raft of new global partners to its innovative Mastercard Installments program and is expanding it further to support small businesses in the U.S. Illustrating the demand for powerful buy now, pay later (BNPL) experiences from familiar and trusted brands, several new partners are providing support for the program, including HSBC, J.P.Morgan and NatWest in the U.K.; Cross River, Evolve Bank & Trust, Jifiti, Live Oak Bank, MOCA Financial and WebBank in the U.S.; and Saudi National Bank (SNB) in Saudi Arabia.
Financial technology leader FIS® is continuing to broaden its global merchant services footprint, announcing that its Worldpay from FIS merchant solutions are now available in the rapidly growing market of South Korea. Worldpay from FIS has partnered with Seoul-based TossPayments, a Korean merchant services platform which allows merchants to accept payments online and manage their business finances on a single platform, to offer access to domestic credit/debit card and APM acquiring services in South Korea.
Fortis, a payment and commerce technology leader for software providers, marketplaces and scaling businesses, announced its partnership with Everyware® opening integrated payment acceptance across platforms. The partnership will automate enrollment, provide faster cash collection and seamless commerce through various channels. Fortis' clients will enjoy enhanced digital offerings while Everyware's customers will have access to Fortis' award-winning payment commerce platform, creating a seamless and integrated advantage for all partners and businesses.
Worldline executed a very satisfactory first half of the year with a strong organic growth of 12.6%, accelerating again in Q2, confirming, 18 months after the start of the Ingenico integration, the power of our enhanced competitive positioning. This performance was, in particular, reached thanks to the very dynamic growth in Merchant Services with a steady expansion of acquiring volumes, a solid merchants count deployment, and numerous new large merchant wins and partnerships.
Finexio, the fast-growing B2B accounts payables (AP) Payments-as-a-Service company, today announces the first close of its $30 million funding round at a $100 million pre-money valuation co-led by Mendon Venture Partners and National Bank Holdings Corporation. Discover Financial Services, Post Road Partners, The Banc Funds, EOM Investments, and other new and existing investors also participated in this growth round.
Onbe, a market-leading corporate disbursements fintech, today announced the addition of payments technology veteran David Tarbox to its board of directors. The board includes Centerbridge Partners, L.P. ("Centerbridge"), Bain Capital Ventures, Silversmith Capital Partners, and veterans from Fiserv, FIS and others, led by Onbe Chairman Juli Spottiswood. Tarbox brings more than 30 years of experience developing and managing market leading payments platforms and fintech solutions.
BlueSnap, the global payment orchestration platform that helps businesses accept payments globally, has partnered with Dalenys, the Merchant Acquirer specialized in payments performance and part of Groupe BPCE, to bolster its global network of acquiring banks, which allows merchants to benefit from local card processing in France.
Justt, a leading fintech revolutionizing the chargeback process through machine learning, announced the expansion of its senior leadership team with two key hires: Renata Caine as Chief Commercial Officer and Lissa Andrews as VP of Global Marketing. The two female fintech veterans will spearhead the company's rapid expansion into new markets including the United States.
As digital payments maintains its foothold as a key trend in retail commerce, Blackhawk Network is entering a relationship with unified payments platform leader, Aurus. Aurus offers global solutions that address the payments ecosystem, and Blackhawk’s leading gift card and payment processing capabilities will help drive continued growth in retail payments.
Zuza announced the addition of two new tools on their flagship Super App, Pay As You Go and Subscriptions. The addition of these tools brings new functionality for merchants allowing them to make custom payment plans for customers and easily manage memberships or subscription services. “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."
Authvia, the leader in conversational commerce technology and the premiere provider of text to pay solutions, announced the issuance of U.S. Patent No. 11,144,895 by the USPTO, entitled “Methods and Systems for Message-Based Bill Payment.” Authvia’s patented technology, TXT2PAY®, allows customers to quickly and easily pay any business with a simple text response. TXT2PAY is the fastest, most convenient way for customers to pay, while providing businesses with accelerated cash-flow, secured customer data, and streamlined operations.
