Payments companies haven't seen any significant uptick in cyberattacks since Russia's invasion of Ukraine increased threats, but security analysts say the industry is an attractive target and should be on high alert. Russian hackers tend to focus on attacking sensitive and economically important networks, like payment networks, given their high public profile and economic importance. Cliff Gray, a senior associate with industry consulting firm The Strawhecker Group, echoed those sentiments, saying payments companies were already a big target for hackers.
The cannabis industry is pushing lawmakers to get a marijuana reform bill to President Biden’s desk before the November midterms, fearing that a Republican takeover of Congress could doom its chances. In an in-person lobbying blitz last week, more than 20 chief executives of top cannabis companies urged lawmakers in both parties to pass the SAFE Banking Act, a bill to allow them to work with U.S. banks that the industry is confident will win enough GOP support to pass the Senate. “There is certainly momentum building around trying to get something done this year in the Senate.
The popularity of debit cards for card-not-present transactions, particularly online payments, is surging, and a new proposal from an industry trade group could expand that popularity while preventing fraud and facilitating merchants’ transaction-routing choices. The proposal is contained in a white paper released Tuesday by the U.S. Payments Forum, an Englewood, Colo.-based organization focused on payment card security and new technologies.
Retail and banking trade groups made a plea Monday to the Treasury Department for help in boosting the circulation of coins to avoid harming consumers who rely on cash for everyday purchases, like food. In a joint March 21 letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the American Bankers Association, the National Grocers Association and the Retail Industry Leaders Association, among others, asked for assistance in raising public awareness of the coin circulation shortage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
As workers return to the office after two years of remote work, Square analyzed sales across the United States of popular lunchtime meals to understand how much consumers can expect to pay post-pandemic. Overall, Square data reveals a new trend of “lunchflation,” with lunch item costs rising faster than the average cost across all other items. For example, as of March 1, 2022, the average price of wraps is up 18% year over year, while sandwiches have seen an increased cost of 14%.
The cryptocurrency market has seen a strong first quarter, with optimism returning in March after prices slumped in January and February, the so-called Crypto Winter. The long period of decline, marked by sharp price volatility, had cooled the general public toward crypto. But Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine displayed new uses for crypto other than as speculative assets. By using crypto to help the Ukrainians, whose economy has collapsed, the general public and investors have ignored or forgotten their concerns about the sector.
The Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) announced the selection of nine young professionals to participate in the 2022 ETA Young Payments Professionals Scholars (YPP) Program. The program, sponsored by Discover Global Network, provides ETA YPP scholars with mentors from leading payments companies, complimentary access to ETA industry events, and networking and knowledge exchange opportunities with members of the payments industry. ETA’s 2022 YPP Scholars class payments professionals, represents compliance, marketing and sales, and product management from various finance, payments and technology firms that are ETA member companies.
Apple has acquired British fintech start-up Credit Kudos, according to people familiar with the matter. The deal was finalized earlier this week, the people told CNBC, preferring to remain anonymous in discussing commercially sensitive information. The deal values Credit Kudos at around $150 million, one of the people said. The news was first reported by crypto-focused media outlet The Block. A spokesperson for Apple said the U.S. tech giant “buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.”
A handful of banks are setting up shop in the metaverse in an effort to learn more about it and to reach the young gamers that use it. The so-called “metaverse” is really multiple separate virtual reality environments, including Decentraland, The Sandbox and Somnium Space. Some primarily host video games. Others, like Decentraland, are online worlds where people create avatars that represent themselves and participate in real-life activities like buying a house and attending a wedding. Second Life, the virtual world Linden Lab developed in the early 2000s, was one of the first of these.
Corporate management startup Ramp confirmed that it has secured $550 million in debt and $200 million in equity in a new financing that doubles its valuation to $8.1 billion. In early February, The Information reported on the then-unconfirmed raise and new valuation. The approaching decacorn valuation is quite remarkable, given that less than one year ago Ramp had just reached unicorn status with a $115 million round. It then raised $300 million at a $3.9 billion valuation last August.
Gemini, the cryptocurrency exchange founded by the Winklevoss twins, has received an electronic money license from the Irish central bank in the first such award since October 2020. The license allows Gemini to issue electronic money in Ireland, as it already does in the UK, according to a report on Monday from The Irish Times. Payments provider Stripe and social media giant Meta are among firms that already have such a license.
Jeeves, the all-in-one corporate card and expense management platform for global startups, has raised a $180 million Series C at a valuation of $2.1 billion. The Series C round, which closed in March 2022, comes just seven months after the company's $57 million Series B round, which valued the company at $500 million. Jeeves has doubled its client base to more than 3000 companies and has grown revenue by 900% since the Series B round, generating more revenue in the first two months of 2022 than all of 2021 combined.
Walmart and its big-box warehouse subsidiary Sam’s Club accused rival retailer BJ’s Wholesale Club in a lawsuit filed Tuesday of stealing technology that powers a popular self-checkout option in the Sam’s Club mobile app. The suit, filed in federal court, claims Walmart worked for years to develop Scan & Go, a feature that lets Sam’s Club customers ring up purchases on their smartphones while walking through the store, allowing them to avoid a checkout line. It also notes that Walmart holds multiple patents protecting the intellectual property for the self-checkout feature, which debuted in 2016.
Two U.S. companies hold the top spots in an annual listing of the top 50 global retailers. Walmart came in No. 1 in the National Retail Federation's 2022 Top 50 Global Retailers ranking. The list, compiled by Kantar Retail, is a compilation of the 50 most impactful retailers in the world based on their operations at the start of 2021. The report cited Walmart's significant investments in omnichannel marketplaces, in-store services and fulfillment models. Holding on to the same rankings as 2021 were Amazon, which came in second, followed By Germany's Schwarz Group and Aldi. Rounding out the top five was Costco, which rose from number six the previous year.
Sick of waiting in line (or on line, for those in New York) to grab food or drinks? One startup is using QR codes to cut down on queues. Sunday debuted last year with tech that lets customers pay their bill by scanning a QR code, targeting traditional sit-down restaurants. The Atlanta-based startup is introducing a feature that allows people to order the same way, aimed at QSRs, bars, and food courts often plagued by long lines. Customers can skip the wait and both place an order from a digital menu and pay on their smartphone, co-founder and CEO Victor Lugger told Retail Brew.
Kohl's and Capital One, National Association, a subsidiary of Capital One Financial Corporation, announced a multi-year extension of their credit card program agreement. This is the second contract extension, with the most recent one occurring in 2014, and will allow the companies to continue to build on their relationship and provide industry-leading experiences and highly compelling products to Kohl's millions of customers. The contract extension with Kohl's enables consumers to have expanded buying power and further solidifies an already strong partnership.
Content management software giant HubSpot released a statement Sunday saying that it had been the victim of a data breach on Friday, citing a compromised employee account as the entry point. Several cryptocurrency firms - BlockFi, Swan Bitcoin, Paxos and NYDIG, among others - have confirmed some customer data was leaked via HubSpot. The customer relationship management firm is a third-party vendor for the cryptocurrency companies, and the leak appears to be an attempt by a malicious actor to access users' details.
In discussing his company’s relationship with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at an analyst conference this week, Affirm Chief Financial Officer Michael Linford struck an empathetic note, saying that drawing up regulations for a fast-growing industry like buy now-pay later isn’t easy. In December, the CFPB ordered San Francisco-based Affirm and four of its biggest rivals in the BNPL sector to provide detailed information on their business practices after receiving complaints from six Democratic senators and consumer activists.
Pavel Vrublevsky, founder of Russian payment technology company ChronoPay, has been charged in Moscow with money laundering. Writing on his website Tuesday (March 22), Brian Krebs – a journalist who has covered Vrublevsky for years – said the businessman is accused of operating a number of fraudulent SMS-based payment schemes, while also facilitating money laundering for Hydra, Russia’s largest darknet marketplace.
Content management software giant HubSpot released a statement Sunday saying that it had been the victim of a data breach on Friday, citing a compromised employee account as the entry point. Several cryptocurrency firms - BlockFi, Swan Bitcoin, Paxos and NYDIG, among others - have confirmed some customer data was leaked via HubSpot. The customer relationship management firm is a third-party vendor for the cryptocurrency companies, and the leak appears to be an attempt by a malicious actor to access users' details.
May require account to read. The pandemic, and now the war in Ukraine, have altered how America’s economy functions. While economists have spent months waiting for conditions to return to normal, they are beginning to wonder what “normal” will mean. Some of the changes are noticeable in everyday life: Work from home is more popular, burrito bowls and road trips cost more, and buying a car or a couch made overseas is harder.
Should oil prices explode to $200 a barrel as some experts have warned, Goldman Sachs thinks the U.S. economy would probably enter a recession (or already be in one). "We estimate that it would take a sustained oil price increase to $200 per barrel to produce an income shock similar in magnitude to those that precipitated the 1974 and 1979 recessions — and this would significantly increase the 2022 recession odds," Goldman Sachs chief economist Jan Hatzius said in a new note on Thursday.
Last week, just 187,000 people in the US filed for initial unemployment benefits claims, a near 53-year low, according to the US Department of Labor. These initial jobless filings are down 28,000, compared with the previous week, and they're at their lowest level since Sept. 6, 1969, when 182,000 people filed initial jobless claims. The filings surprised experts polled by Reuters, who had forecast 212,000 initial filings for last week.
American Express released the American Express Travel: 2022 Global Travel Trends Report, which shows people are looking forward to more trips than last year and planning to spend more or the same on travel in 2022 compared to a typical pre-pandemic year. The report, based on data from the United States, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Japan, India and the United Kingdom, reveals consumers are traveling to see the people and places they love, celebrate important life events, embark on wish list trips, experience in-person events, and to seek greater wellness and self-care.
It’s one thing to find out a small monthly payment didn’t go through. It’s quite another when that payment is your rent. When there are hiccups with big monthly payments, everyone feels the pinch. They can find themselves, at best, dealing with the friction between parties and scrambling to find different ways for the payment to come through and, at worst, paying large penalty fees. Now merchants can use advanced data analytics and machine learning to make the payment experience safer and smarter for everyone.
Fiserv, Inc. and MX, a financial data platform provider and a leader in modern connectivity, are accelerating the future of open finance through secure, reliable consumer financial data sharing. MX is the first company to access tokenized consumer data via AllData® Connect from Fiserv, to better enable a more secure way for consumers to share their financial data with their favorite apps or services. “Consumers are increasingly using third-party apps to manage their finances, improve their financial literacy, receive access to deals and insights, and more,” said Justin Jackson, Head of Product for Digital Payments at Fiserv.
Paysafe, a leading specialized payments platform, announced a partnership with Resorts WorldBET, the new mobile sports-betting app for Resorts World New York, with brick-and-mortar casinos Resorts World Catskills (RWC) and Resorts World New York City (RWNYC). Already facilitating payments for multiple New York mobile sportsbooks since the market’s launch in January, Paysafe now enables players to make deposits with Resorts WorldBET by debit card and ACH, plus receive payouts.
Lightspeed Commerce Inc., the one-stop commerce platform for merchants around the world to simplify, scale and create exceptional customer experiences, is announcing two key promotions and a new hire for its executive leadership team. To best align its people and organization for the next phase of company growth, Brandon Nussey will oversee the Company's operating effectiveness in the newly created role of Chief Operating Officer, and Asha Bakshani will head Lightspeed's finance team as Chief Financial Officer.
Digital River, an experienced global commerce enabler for established and fast-growing brands, today announced the appointment of Keith Bush as the company’s chief financial officer. Bush will report directly to Digital River Chief Executive Officer Adam Coyle. Bush most recently served as Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President at Deluxe Corporation, where he led several hundred team members across finance, accounting, treasury, tax, investor relations and other critical functions.
Inc. Magazine revealed that PaymentCloud is No. 63 and a repeat honoree of its third annual Inc. 5000 Regionals: Pacific list, the most prestigious ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington. Ranking No. 6 in the financial services category and No. 53 in California-based businesses, PaymentCloud is particularly apt for this moment of fintech innovation.
dLocal, the leading payment platform connecting global merchants to emerging markets, announced their strategic partnership with SaaS eCommerce platform BigCommerce. Under the new partnership, dLocal will power cross border and local-to-local payments to support BigCommerce’s global expansion in Latin America. dLocal’s award-winning solution enables BigCommerce merchants for the first time to accept localized payments such as local cards and Alternative Payment Methods (APMs), including Boleto Bancário and Pix in Brazil, and Oxxo in Mexico. T
Blackbaud, the world's leading cloud software company powering social good, announced that Blackbaud Merchant Services™ customers can now accept payments through both PayPal and Venmo in the U.S. in select Blackbaud products. A new product integration with PayPal allows social good organizations to offer supporters the option to checkout with PayPal or Venmo, making it easier for donors to give to their missions. Through this integration, Blackbaud customers will have access to a broader audience of donors with PayPal's more than 426 million active consumer accounts.
Alliance Data announced it will now be known as Bread Financial, a tech-forward financial services company that provides simple, personalized payment, lending and saving solutions. After a multi-year transformation to streamline its business model, Bread Financial has emerged as a modern financial services company backed by technology and platform solutions that empower today’s consumer. The company’s prior market-facing brands are now unified under the singular, cohesive Bread Financial brand.
