Industry News

Fourth quarter net sales increased 22% to $125.1 million, net income increased 148% to $6.8 million, and Adjusted EBITDA increased 10% to $21.9 million, compared to the prior year period. Sales growth was led by strong performance from the prepaid business, driven by sales of more complex, higher-value packaging solutions and expansion into new customer verticals, and increased sales of contactless debit and credit cards and personalization services.

Rivero will provide its Amiko fraud recovery and dispute management platform to 100 debit card customers of financial market infrastructure provider Six in Switzerland. Amiko software handles all incoming disputes and helps chargeback agents and analysts work on cases more efficiently.

Chargebacks911 will provide its card payment dispute and revenue recovery management suite of software and service offerings to Prommt  for use by that company's clients in Europe and North America. Prommt operates a payment request platform that delivers reports and alerts to enterprises with multiple locations, including those with high rates of chargebacks such as hospitality businesses.

Silverflow’s cloud-native payment processing platform has been deployed by Solidgate, a processor focused on handling payments for subscription-based merchants. Solidgate says that website visitors that become paying customers (conversion rates) are up 7% and that profits are up 20% for itself and its merchants.

In 2024, total revenue of $1.594 billion grew 10% and net income of $203 million grew 67%. Total adjusted EBITDA of $466 million grew 18%. Cash flow from operating activities of $359 million grew 113%. The company expects 7-9% revenue growth in 2025.

Annual volume of $80 billion was up 21%. Growth in B2B volume growth was 42%. For the fourth quarter, B2B volume of $3.0 billion increased 37% YOY. Volume from SMBs that sell on marketplaces was $13.4 billion, up 14% YOY.

Flexa, which provides merchants and developers with tools for accepting cryptocurrency payments, has introduced Tap to Pay capabilities for users of NFC-enabled hardware wallets. Users sign and transmit crypto transactions directly at the point of sale without the need for a mobile phone or internet connection. They enter their PIN on a POS terminal at a Flexa-enabled merchant and tap their wallet. Transactions are processed on a blockchain.

Mobey Forum's latest report, titled “Account-Based Digital Wallets: Navigating the Future of Payments,” covers the accelerating shift from card-based to account-to-account wallets. It analyzes the competitive landscape, the role of value-added services and the interplay between domestic and global payment solutions. Mobey Forum is a not-for-profit, member-based knowledge and networking platform that focuses on emerging technologies and business models in digital financial services. You can download this report at https://mobeyforum.org/mobey-forum-explores-the-future-of-account-based-digital-wallets-in-new-industry-report/

Worldline reported $4.86 billion (€4,632m) in revenue, up 0.5%. Adjusted EBITDA was $1.348 billion (€1,070m). Free cash flow was $253 million €201m).

Orum, provider to businesses of the connectivity they need to deliver real-time payments via a single API integration, has added support for Visa Direct funds transfers. Businesses that use Orum’s Deliver API can move money to and from 99% of all US bank accounts via a linked debit card. Orum also provides access to RTP, FedNow, Same Day ACH, ACH, and wires, as well as instant bank account verification covering 100% of bank accounts in the US.

Checkout.com, provider of a global payment processing platform, has expanded its partnership with Mastercard to include money transfers for consumers and businesses in the UAE. Senders will be able to deliver funds to a Mastercard card. The service utilizes Mastercard Move. US cases include insurance disbursements, wallet cashouts and refunds. Mete Guney is EVP, Market Development, Mastercard, Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa.

PXP, an omnichannel global payment platform, has integrated with Snowflake, providers of a platform that uses an AI data cloud to enable merchants and partners to better analize business data and speed up decision-making. PXP is supplying the data engine that aggregates, visualizes and enables real-time interaction with transactional data.

VikingCloud, a global cybersecurity and PCI compliance company, has signed a multi-year agreement with Fiserv, the largest US merchant acquirer, to deliver turnkey cybersecurity services designed for small and midsize merchants (SMBs).

PassEntry, a provider of technology for digital passes, has received an investment led by Bonsai Partners and Curio Ventures. Funds will be used to expand integrations with POS systems with a focus on partnerships in North America and Asia-Pacific. Applications for PassKey’s technology include loyalty cards, event tickets and membership passes within Apple and Google wallets.

Ascenda, a loyalty-as-a-service provider, has partnered with Galileo Financial Technologies to deliver loyalty experiences to banks, fintechs and other brands through card programs. Galileo is SoFi Technologies' technology platform. The end-to-end service has Galileo providing the infrastructure for financial services, and Ascenda handling rewards fulfillment.

American Express has teamed with Alipay, a digital platform for financial services, to allow eligible global American Express cardholders to link their cards to Alipay's digital wallet.

Mastercard's December agreement to settle a lawsuit brought on behalf of British consumers has been approved by London's Competition Appeal Tribunal. As a result, Mastercard will pay £200 million ($253 million) to settle a long-running lawsuit over card fees. Innsworth Capital, which funded the litigation, had argued the deal should not be approved. The amount of the settlement was far below its original £10 billion valuation.

PDX Global, a digital banking and payments developer for cryptocurrency, has launched its PDX Beam payments app on the Apple App Store and Google Play. The company has also integrated its technology into the Clover payments processing network, allowing the network's 800,000 retailers and restaurants to accept cryptocurrency. PDX Beam allows consumers to pay participating merchants with cryptocurrency, while the merchant is settled in cash on the other side of the transaction.

New West Technologies, a provider of payment integration services, has partnered with Braintree to launch PayFusion365, a product that adds payment capabilities to Microsoft Dynamics 365. Braintree, a unit of PayPal, provides capabilities that let businesses accept, process and split payments across retail and ecommerce sectors including subscriptions services. New West supports payments from cards, PayPal, Venmo (US), Apple Pay, Google Pay and local alternatives. It can handle 130+ currencies in 45+ countries.

Galileo Financial Technologies, a technology platform subsidiary of SoFi Technologies, has launched a co-brand program for debit cards that let’s issuers and program managers offer rewards typically associated with credit cards. There are more than 1.30 billion debit cards in circulation in the US. Among those cardholders are people who have little or no credit history and can’t qualify for a credit card. Galileo, which offers card issuing support, account processing, program management and more, anticipates that hospitality and travel brands will offer rewards to debit cardholders.

Raise, a provider of prepaid cards and blockchain-powered payments and loyalty, will integrate its cards into the Bilt Rewards platform. Bilt members earn rewards rewards points on rent payments and daily spending. The API integration with Raise allows reward redemption from major retailers including Amazon, Walmart and Starbucks and also supports supports balance inquiries, transaction history, cancellations and add-to-wallet features.

New West Technologies, a provider of payment integration services, has partnered with Braintree to launch PayFusion365, a product that adds payment capabilities to Microsoft Dynamics 365. Braintree, a unit of PayPal, provides capabilities that let businesses accept, process and split payments across retail and ecommerce sectors including subscriptions services. New West supports payments from cards, PayPal, Venmo (US), Apple Pay, Google Pay and local alternatives. It can handle 130+ currencies in 45+ countries.

Kona I, a South-Korea-based smart card and technology platform, has received a Letter of Approval from Mastercard for biometric plastic (PVC) payment cards built on the Idex Pay platform, allowing the issuance and deployment of biometric cards globally. Idex Pay is provided by Kona says annual production capacity is 60+ million cards.

Vespia, an Estonian provider of business verification (KYB) services, will integrate its technology with Mastercard's MDOP (Merchant Digital Onboarding Platform) to expedite merchant onboarding. The target market is financial companies in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), Europe, the Middle East, Africa (EEMEA), and Asia-Pacific (AP) regions.

Aevi, a provider of card-present payment orchestration, is collaborating with Ixopay, an enterprise-grade platform that orchestrates card-not-present transactions. The partnership will let merchants connect card-present and card-not-present services, allowing them to connect POS terminals with multiple processors and accept local, international, and alternative payment options without additional integrations.