Industry News

Paysend, a global fintech handling international money transfers, has raised $65 million in its latest funding round. The investment round follows a partnership with Mastercard announced earlier this year, through which Paysend will handle cross-border payments for SME's via its Open Payments Network.

BHMI, a provider of back-office payment services, announced that NCR Atleos will resell BHMI’s Concourse Financial Software Suite for real-time payment processing. The product performs back-office functions such as settlement, reconciliation, disputes management and fees processing.

BigCommerce, an Open SaaS ecommerce platform for B2C and B2B brands, reported a 10% increase in gross merchandise value for BigCommerce merchants compared to the same period in 2022. Total orders were up 7%.

Incognia, a provider of location identity services, is partnering with Mudflap, a mobile payments provider and fuel discount network for the trucking industry. Mudflap will use Incognia's real-time fraud prevention technology to detect behavioral anomalies.

Synchrony Financial, the largest private label credit card issuer and 10th largest issuer of general purpose credit cards in the US, is expected to gain about $750 million from the sale of its subsidiary, Pets Best Insurance Services. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2024.

Bluefin, a provider of payment processing and data security services, has teamed with ID Tech to deliver PCI validated Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption services to Bluefin customers and partners using their Decryptx and PayConex payment security products. AES is a specification for the encryption of electronic data established by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology.

SimplePin, a cloud-based payments infrastructure provider for the insurance industry, has been chosen to automate digital payments and receivables for The Daniel and Henry Co. The company's newest product, SimpleMatch, uses AI technology for payment and AR reconciliation.

Grazzy, a digital tipping platform, has been named a preferred technology provider by Hyatt Hotels. The company says that digital tipping helps hotel operations, bar and restaurant staff earn $1 - $2 more per hour, and improves back-of-the-house operations by supporting tax compliance. Grazzy has been approved by all four of the major hotel brands, and is a preferred provider to three of the four.

InComm Payments is expanding the distribution of App Store Cards to PChome, an ecommerce platform in Taiwan. Digital prepaid cards are available in seven denominations.

Bolt's headless checkout technology is used by Saks Off 5th, Toys"R"Us, Shinola, Filson, Lafayette 148, and more. Enterprise retailers can pick and choose from Bolt's technology suite for a customized service,

Revenue of $71.8 million compares to $63.2 million YOY. Gross merchandise volume of $29.67 billion was up 17% from $25.31 billion YOY.

Since the start of October, Visa has reportedly been giving some small merchants in Australia discounts on interchange fees as part of a wider effort to reclaim market share from domestic payments scheme, Eftpos Australia. Eftpos now processes around a quarter of all Australian debit payments made online. Visa appears to be offering card issuers and acquiring banks a flat rate of as low as 2.2 cents (inclusive of GST) when they accept Visa debit payments over the counter.

Co-op Solutions will begin providing contactless ATM access for all NCR Atleos terminals in its network by year-end, adding Diebold and Hyosung terminals in 2024. Transactions, which can be initiated by anyone with a Visa or Mastercard EMV card, have been measured as 50% faster than a swiped magstripe card, and 35% faster than an inserted EMV card. There are no API integration requirements for credit unions or ATM vendors.

Feedzai, a provider of technology to manage financial crime and risk, has partnered with CoreCard, an issuer processor of credit and prepaid cards. The partnership will expand CoreCard’s spending control capabilities and enhance its ability to detect and prevent fraud. Feedzai uses intelligent AI to monitor and flag suspicious transactions in nanoseconds.

ICBA Payments is the new name for ICBA Bancard, the payments subsidiary of of the Independent Community Bankers of America. Its subsidiary and credit card bank, TCM Bank, is also part of the rebranding and has launched a new logo. .

VerityPay, a B2B Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform, is enabling businesses to make payments via SMS/text directly into the digital wallets of their customers, much like what PayPal and Venmo do. The company claims the is the first service to supports B2C payments via a digital wallet. A prime market is businesses in the utilities, insurance, healthcare and telecommunications industries, which still process millions of paper checks.

Worldline, Europe's third largest merchant acquirer, has enabled Tap to Pay on iPhone for large merchant customers in France.

PayRange a provider of a mobile payment app for automated retail, has integrated PayPal and Venmo as funding sources with the PayRange wallet in the US. More than 7 million individuals use the PayRange app to make transactions at over 500,000 machines for laundry, vending and arcade games throughout the US and Canada.

Zil Money has introduced a payroll application that funds employee salaries by using the employer’s credit card. The goal is to enhance cash flow and give business owners the opportunity to use their credit card rewards, like cash back options, while writing off the resulting fee as a business expense. The application can also be used to make payments to vendors, landlords and other expenses, even if the recipients don’t accept credit card payments.

Klarna has expanded beyond BNPL. When consumers agree to share their information with Klarna to receive a more personalized shopping experience, its Ads Manager service shows them relevant content. Ads Manager will roll out to all of Klarna's global markets over the next few months. Klarna has also expanded Creator Shops beyond the US. That service gives Klarna's network of 500,000+ creators the ability to launch their own storefronts on Klarna.com

Nuvei, a Canadian fintech company, has added direct connectivity to Blik, a mobile payment method (APM) in Poland. Blik is one of 669 APMs available for ecommerce businesses through Nuvei. It allows users to make instant payments through their mobile banking app. The APM is connected to 19 of the country's leading financial institutions and has enabled almost 2.8 billion transactions valued at 371.4 billion Polish zloty in 8 years.

Tranch, a B2B payments platform, is now available to enterprise clients in the US. The platform is built for the software and services industry with a range of payment options including its Pay Now, Pay by Card and Pay Later products. Pay Now integrates with the Real-Time Payment Network and FedNow. Pay Later lets clients to pay up to $500,000 over 2 to 12 months.

Paysafe will provide card and alternative payment methods to Fanatics Betting and Gaming. That companies brand Fanatics Sportsbook has customers in Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio and Tennessee. Paysafe’s service is API-based and provides a range of options for making deposits and receiving payouts for winnings including barcode-based Paysafecash.

Financial highlights of the third quarter of 2023 compared with the third quarter of 2022 included revenue of $189.0 million, up 13.6% from $166.4 million. Adjusted gross profit (a non-GAAP measure1) of $72.3 million was up 23.6% from $58.5 million. Adjusted gross profit margin (a non-GAAP measure1) of 38.3% was up 310 basis points from 35.2%.

Avelo Airlines has become the first US airline to feature PayPal's Pay in 4 when customers begin shopping for travel purchases. Eligible customers can break up purchases ranging from $30 to $1,500 into four interest-free payments. Avelo will also start using PayPal Checkout for access to a range of payment methods, along with PayPal Braintree for authorizations and PayPal's Fraud Protection Advanced including dispute resolution.

Third quarter preliminary results reflect the legacy NCR business, inclusive of NCR Atleos, which was separated as an independent, publicly traded company on October 16, 2023. Revenue of $2 billion was up 2% on a constant currency basis. Net income (loss) from continuing operations attributable to NCR was $(124) million.

FreedomPay will integrate Pennies, the micro-donation charity into its technology stack. This gives FreedomPay merchants the ability to let customers support charity partners by adding a low value digital donation to their purchases at checkout.

PayIt, a provider of digital payment technology for state, local and provincial governments, has been selected by the City of Montgomery, Alabama, to deliver a platform for collecting revenue. It will handle ticket sales for the Montgomery Zoo and the Harriet II Riverboat, business licensing and permitting, payments for citations and court fines and fees.

For the quarter, revenue growth was led by a 197% increase in prepaid revenues. Prepaid revenues remain on track to increase by over 125% in 2023. Gross profits were $4.2 million. Total payment transactions processed were 9.7 million, a decrease of 6% YOY. Total payment dollars processed were $1.4 billion, marginally lower than last year's third quarter $1.4 billion volume.

ACI Worldwide, a provider of software for real-time payments, has broadened its 20-year-old relationship with Interswitch Group by going from reseller to strategic partner status across multiple markets in the Sub-Saharan Africa region. The partnership will enable banks, fintechs and other financial institutions in the region to modernize their payments infrastructure through ACI’s Enterprise Payments Platform. Interswitch will incorporate ACI's range of payment services into its technology stack.

Mastercard and Norwegian fintech EedenBull have launched a cards and spend-management platform designed for small and medium-sized enterprises. The partnership means that Mastercard will refer its network of customers issuing cards to SMEs in the APAC region to EedenBull's Q Business platform. The service will be available immediately to issuers in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, the Philippines and Malaysia before expanding region-wide.

Ecommpay, an acquirer for merchants in the UK and Europe, has integrated with GoCardless to offer debit cards as a payment option in 25+ countries. The company is a full-stack acquirer capable of delivering payment card, open banking, direct debit and local payment method processing through a single integration.

Visa has expanded its Real Time Visa Account Updater (VAU) to select markets in Asia-Pacific. Consumers and merchants in the region will have access to Real Time VAU across subscription services such as ride-hailing, food delivery and monthly utility payments.

Charlie, a banking service for the 62+ age group, has added FraudShield, fraud-protection tools that include the ability to block transactions from any online merchant, the ability to set a maximum daily amount for card purchases and ATM withdrawals, and the ability to have every transaction texted to the customer's phones.

Montonio, providers of a checkout toolkit that handles online payments along with shipping and refunds, has integrated Blik for merchant checkouts in Poland. Montonio's other offerings include Apple Pay, Google Pay and Revolut. Blik claims to be Poland's most popular payment method. It's app generates a 6-digit used to complete payments.

Visa has launched an AI Advisory Practice through its payments consulting arm, Visa Consulting & Analytics (VCA).The AI practice will focus on providing actionable insights and recommendations to empower clients to unlock the potential of AI and utilize generative AI, from initial discovery and planning to implementation. Over the last 10 years, Visa has invested more than $3 billion in AI and data infrastructure to enable safer, smarter money movement and proactively prevent fraud.

Third quarter sales and earnings declined compared to prior year levels, with net sales decreasing 15% to $105.9 million, net income decreasing 68% to $3.9 million and Adjusted EBITDA decreasing 25% to $21.2 million.

InComm Payments will manage the supply and fulfillment of prepaid card orders for Meal Train, an online platform that handles the organization of meals for friends and family experiencing significant life events. Meal Train customers have access to InComm Payments’ assortment of private label and general purpose prepaid cards.

Total volume for the nine months ended September 30, 2023 increased by 72% to $48.2 billion from $28.0 billion. eCommerce represented 88%. Revenue increased 55% to $304.9 million from $197.1 million.

Whillet, an embedded finance startup for used car sales, is collaborating with Visa to launch the Carment Instant Payment Platform in the US enabled by Visa Direct.

OrganicPaymentGateways.com has created a gateway for nutritional supplement businesses that use WooCommerce and WordPress. It helps health, wellness, homeopathic and dietary-supplement companies apply for and set up payment gateways and merchant accounts. Integration with WordPress plug-ins with one-on-one integration support include screen sharing when needed.

Commercetools, a global provider of composable commerce, will integrate with PayPal Braintree so that its customers can work with multiple payment providers, acquirers, and banks. Expanded payment options include debit and credit cards, digital wallets, PayPal Later and local payment methods in 200+ markets using 135 currencies. Fraud tools include Fraud Protection on eligible transactions and Dispute Automation.

Fingerprint Cards will collaborate with IN Groupe's Smart Packaging Solutions (SPS) to facilitate the manufacturing of biometric payment cards that incorporate Fingerprints’ biometric sensors, software and algorithm. IN Groupe holds 25% of the dual interface market worldwide outside China with through its Smart Packaging Solutions (SPS).

Jifiti, a global provider of white-labeled embedded lending, has been granted an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license in Europe. The license allows Jifiti to offer a broader scope of payment products and services to its bank, lender, financial-services and merchant clients. It also means the company can provide pan-European services to multinational banks and merchants.

Openpay, a fintech firm based in Denmark, has partnered with Yapily, an international open banking API provider, to offer cross-border, peer-to-peer money transfers. The Openpay app allows users to execute immediate, cost-free money transfers without caps on transaction volumes. Yapily will enable connection to over 2000 banks across 19 European countries. Initially the service will be available to account holders in Denmark, with plans to roll out to Sweden, Norway, the UK, and Germany later this year.

Mastercard has launched a new program in collaboration with FD Global Connections to support Australia's fintech industry. The FinTech Pathway to Effective Governance initiative is a 7-week program that addresses risk management along with issues involving non-compliance and reputational damage.

Total revenue of $230.3 million grew 25% YOY. Net loss improved by 47% YOY with positive Adjusted EBITDA. GPV was $5.9 billion, an increase of 59%, YOY, and GTV was $23.5 billion. ARPU of approximately $425 increased 26% YOY.

Netspend and Rêv Worldwide have integrated their key assets and formed a new global financial-services company named Ouro for loyalty and technology. Ouro's portfolio includes loyalty products along with processing for prepaid, debit and cross-border payments.

Revenue of $537.8, down 3.1%, included impact from divestitures, while comparable adjusted revenue was flat YOY. A net loss of $8.0 million, including restructuring and other charges in the quarter, was down from net income of $14.7 million in the prior year.

Total revenue of $363 million was up 21%. Total recurring revenue grew 10%. Net income of $38 million grew 64%. Total EBITDA of $103 million grew 147% to $103 million.

Amazon has expanded its partnership with Affirm, making that company the first BNPL option available at checkout on Amazon Business, a B2B store that helps businesses of all sizes digitize and automate procurement. The Affirm option will be available to all eligible sole proprietor businesses by Black Friday. Those customers can select from customized pay-over-time options of 3 to 48 months.

CellPoint Digital, a global provider of payment orchestration, has partnered with Riskified to help airlines and other travel merchants increase transaction approval rates and reduce costs. Riskified's provides protection against chargebacks, fraud and policy abuse. WellPoint handles digital payment transactions, from cards or alternative payment methods, and accelerates the deployment of new payment options.

Adyen, the global financial technology platform, will launch Pay-by-Bank services in North America in early 2024 in partnership with Plaid, a digital finance provider. Pay-by-Bank joins the more than 150 different payment methods offered by Adyen.

American Express has selected Nuvei to be the first provider of merchant acquirering services authorized to promote and sell Amex's Open Banking-enabled payment method called Pay with Bank Transfer. Consumers can transfer money from their bank accounts without having to enter card details or complete additional authentication checks.

Nexi's RTGS Extreme Contingency Service will be used by Payments Canada, the organization responsible for Canada's payment clearing and settlement infrastructure. The technology will be used to enhance the resilience of Lynx, Canada’s high-value payment system, in the event of an emergency such as a malicious attack, network failure, natural or accidental disaster. Based on the real-time gross settlement (RTGS) model, wire payments cleared and settled using Lynx are irrevocable.

Mastercard has entered a multi-year partnership with Live Nation, a live entertainment company, giving cardholders related perks such as exclusive access to concert presale tickets, premium seats, and VIP experiences. Benefits will be available through pricelesss.com in 19 geographies across Europe and Asia, including Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Japan, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand and the UK.

BillingPlatform has integrated its revenue lifecycle-management platform with J.P. Morgan Payments to expand the billing capabilities of J.P. Morgan's Treasury Services and Trade Finance businesses. Benefits include flexible billing configurations, workflow automation and end-to-end processing.

JCB International has expanded its partnership with Stripe to include Europe, Singapore and Hong Kong. This allows Stripe's e-commerce merchants in those areas to accept JCB cards. The companies already have partnerships in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Mangopay has been authorized by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority as an Electronic Money Institution (EMI). The company provides its modular payments infrastructure to customers including Vinted, Chrono24, Wallapop, La Redoute and Rakuten.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's biennial report to Congress says that credit card companies charged consumers more than $105 billion in interest and more than $25 billion in fees in 2022.

Payoneer, a global fintech for small and mid-sized businesses, is collaborating with global online marketplace Etsy to help it streamline payments to sellers via Etsy Payments. The collaboration will utilize Payoneer’s infrastructure to offer payouts to sellers in the currency of their preference. It will initially launch in Ukraine and Thailand, followed by India, Japan, Argentina, Chile, and Peru by the end of 2023.

Bottomline has made its B2B payment network of ACH suppliers available to approved financial institutions, fintechs and others. The network has 550,000+ authenticated and validated suppliers able to take ACH payments, and operates as a network-as-a-service offering.

Sift, a fintech that handles digital trust and safety, has expanded its platform by introducing automation, investigation, and machine-learning training for non-traditional payment methods such as BNPL, digital wallets, and ACH systems.

Elavon Financial Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S. Bank, has been authorized as a licensed provider of financial services by the Bank of England. The new license will cover the scope of existing Elavon operations, including investment services, and payments processing.

Apexx Global will become the worldwide payments platform for Internova Travel Group. US based Internova is one of the largest travel companies in the world, with over 6,000 company-owned, franchised and affiliated travel agencies representing over 70,000 travel advisers and over $20 billion in total transaction value. Apexx can offer alternative payments methods including host cards, mobile wallets, BNPL services  and bank transfer products via a single API.

Fiserv, a global provider of payments and financial services, is making capabilities from its merchant acceptance, banking, and card issuing businesses available to clients and partners through a set of APIs. Pay Theory, an SaaS platform, will offer the embedded financial services to software platforms and merchants.

Token.io’s open banking network now spans 20 markets, each with at least 80% account coverage. The company recently launched in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway, where it offers Account Information Services and Payment Initiation Services to clients including Paysafe in Denmark.

Entersekt has launched a mobile application authentication service to banks and credit unions using the Q2 Digital Banking Platform. Financial institutions can fight fraud involving account takeovers, device takeovers and more through pre-built integration within the Q2 Mobility App. The pre-integration allows for instant deployment to an FI’s mobile banking app. Entersekt had previously offered client-login and transaction authentication through a browser.

Metropolitan Commercial Bank has partnered with cloud-based payments platform, Finzly to modernize its payment-processing operations on ACH, Fedwire, and FedNow.

Airwallex, a global payments and financial platform, will support Alpaca, a API brokerage platform, by handling global payments and foreign exchange (FX). The partnership allows Alpaca and its broker partners support funding and settling transactions in a wide range of currencies, starting with Australian dollars, Canadian dollars), Euros and many others, while managing the FX risk.

Fiserv and Plaid have agreed to create application programming interfaces that will give consumers who bank with Fiserv's clients secure, credential-less API-based connectivity to the more than 8,000 applications and services on the Plaid network. Fiserv hosts nearly 3,000 bank and credit unions.

Marqeta, an embedded-finance and card-issuing platform, has added two new customers for its virtual card service. Extend, a provider of technology-enabled product protection, will deliver product replacements via a virtual card, issued right after a claim is approved. The other company, Financeit, provides point-of-sale financing for the home improvement sector in Canada.

Idemia Identity and Security, a provider of technology for biometrics and identity security and authentication, has signed a three-year contract with CentralAMS, a payment gateway for the online gaming industry. Idemia's Identity & Verification services features identity proofing to ensure that individuals are who they claim to be. It also incorporates document-authentication technology that checks for digital tampering.

GoDaddy is the first website builder to integrate Paze into small business' customer checkout experience. Paze, an online payment solution developed by Early Warning Services, will include over 150 million eligible credit and debit cards at commercial launch.

Hepsipay, a Turkish ecommerce platform, has signed a five-year partnership with Visa for its prepaid cards. Platform users will be able to add the Visa logo to their digital cards, allowing them to top up cash to their Hepsipay cards via transfers from credit card, debit card, or bank accounts.

Passport Parking's mobile payment application will be used by the City of Beverly, Massachusetts to allow parking payments via smart phones. After downloading the free, users enter the respective zone number, license plate number and the desired length of time for parking. They can receive notifications when their sessions are about to expire, extend their sessions remotely and view receipts and parking history.

NPCI International Payments has signed a reciprocal sharing agreement with UAE-based Al Etihad Payments to link the card switches of India and the UAE. Cardholders will be able to use their domestic cards at ATMs, in-store and online. About 3.5 million Indian expatriates live in the UAE. They remit about $20 billion annually to India.

BlueSnap, a global payment orchestration platform for B2B and B2C businesses, has partnered with Retail Realm, a multinational Microsoft ISV specializing in payments. For retailers using Microsoft Dynamics 365, the integration will improve their ability to give global customers localized payment experiences using local payment methods and currencies.

Galileo Financial Technologies will use Mastercard Installments to make its Buy Now, Pay Later product available for lenders to offer as a service to their small business clients. Galileo is owned and operated independently by SoFi Technologies Inc.

Mastercard has added two new rewards for eligible World Mastercard and World Elite Mastercard cardholders. Those who are new to Instacart will receive a two-month free trial and $10 off their second eligible Instacart purchase each month. Those who are new to Peacock's streaming service will get either a $3 credit (World Mastercard) or a $5 credit (World Elite Mastercard) to their monthly statement.

Modern Treasury, an operating system for payments processing, has joined J.P. Morgan’s Payments Partner Network. Enterprises can leverage Modern Treasury’s software to integrate directly with J.P. Morgan’s treasury services and embed payments. In 2019 J.P. Morgan was Modern Treasury’s first partner in rolling out Real Time Payments capabilities.

Nuvei Corporation, a Canadian fintech company, now lets its B2B business clients offer card-not-present and account-to-account processing to their customers in Canada. B2B clients will also get Level 3 processing and accounts-receivable services for proprietary accounts.

Bluefin will provide a customized version of its PCI-validated encryption and tokenization technologies to Invenco by GVR, a service provider to convenience retailers in North America. Bluefin's P2PE technology will integrated with Invenco’s FlexPay IV and FlexPay 6 outdoor payment terminals. Bluefin says its technology reduces the work involved in PCI DSS compliance by more than 70%.

Tribe Payments, a payments technology provider specializing in both issuer and acquirer processing, has integrated its Tribe Core platform onto the platform operated by Temenos Exchange. Tenemos focuses on integrated fintech services.

American Express has has refreshed its U.S. American Express Business Gold Card with the ability to earn 4X Membership Rewards points in more business spending categories including transit and electronics, Cardholders can also earn up to $395 in statement credits each year on eligible purchases at select business merchants. They also have the option of choosing the company's new Rose Gold design, formerly available only to Consumer Gold Card Members.

PayZen, a fintech focused on making healthcare more affordable through the use of AI, has launched PayZen Care Card in partnership with Geisinger and University of Texas Medical Branch. Providers can offer the Care Card to patients ahead of scheduled procedures, at point-of-care, or for longer care cycles such as dialysis or cancer treatments. When swiped, the card creates personalized, zero-interest plans so patients can pay affordably over time, while PayZen funds the provider up-front.

Solutions by Text has partnered with Nuvei to add embedded payments to its FinText platform. The technology handles bill pay, from initiation to payment, within the text channel. It delivers secure tokenized PCI-compliant payments that can be initiated though simple keywords like "Pay Now" for faster transactions.

Pidgin, a secure real-time payments platform, has partnered with Exchange Bank to offer instant payments to its retail and commercial account holders. Pidgin serves as a central connection point to the Federal Reserve’s FedNow Service and other faster payment networks, including The Clearing House’s Real-Time Payment network.

Visa has announced a new $100-million initiative to invest in the next generation of companies focused on developing generative AI technologies and applications for payments. Generative AI is an emerging subset of AI that is built on Large Language Models to develop artificial general intelligence capable of generating text, images or other content from large sets of existing data when given prompts.

Star, a global technology consulting firm, has launched a partner-agnostic middleware product to help brands and retailers speed up the development of card-based services including loyalty, subscription, fuel, Buy Now Pay Later and other card-based services. CardPro Accelerator is a pre-developed set of software components that can integrate into existing technology infrastructures, potentially cutting the development time and cost of card services by 50%.

Forter, a fraud prevention platform, has updated its Data Studio offering. Fraud and payments teams can now create custom dashboards for added insights. Options include: reviewing declined transactions by segments to identify problem areas, tracking losses due to customer abuse to determine if policies should be changed, optimizing authorization rates based on processor performance.

PSCU, a payments credit union service organization, has been selected by Horizon Credit Union to provide services and support for its debit and credit card programs and ATMs. Horizon, with $2.1 billion in assets, has over 30 branches throughout eastern Washington, Idaho, western and central Montana and eastern Oregon.

Visa has changed the rules for its dispute program to make it easier for merchants to fight friendly fraud (or first-party fraud) for card-not-present transactions. The change gives merchants more ways to show that a disputed charge is valid and authorized, potentially saving small businesses over a billion dollars in losses globally over the next five years.

Interac, a Canadian payment brand used by federally regulated banks and provincially regulated credit unions, has broadened access to allow additional types of financial institutions to participate in its e-Transfer service. First to gain provisional approval is Wealthsimple, a provider of digital financial services.

Square has launched Tap to Pay on Android to allow sellers in Canada to securely accept credit card contactless payments at no additional cost.

TangoPay, a payment institution that handles transactions from expats living in the UK, will collaborate with ThetaRay for fraud deterrence. ThetaRay provides next-generation AI-powered technology to secure global payments. TangoPay's app-based service reaches over 70 countries.

UnionPay has partnered with K&H Payment Services in Hungary to expand its card-acceptance network there. K&H is a local acquirer. It operates approximately 25,000 POS terminals that represent a market share of 9%, and has contracts with 12,000 merchants. UnionPay has been operating in Hungary since 2010 and its cards are accepted by 70% of the country's merchants and 45% its ATMs.

Visa has announced two new collaborations to expand Installments enabled by Visa to more eligible Canadian credit cardholders — one with Air Transat and another with London Drugs. Visa's service allows consumers to convert qualifying purchases into smaller, equal installment payments over a specified period of time.

Interac, a Canadian payment brand used by federally regulated banks and provincially regulated credit unions, has broadened access to allow additional types of financial institutions to participate in its e-Transfer service. First to gain provisional approval is Wealthsimple, a provider of digital financial services.

Bit Builders, creators of the NextGen Digital Banking platform, will add a fraud module developed by OrboGraph. The turnkey services automates manual processes to deter fraud for both the paying bank and the depositary financial institution.

Infinicept, a provider of embedded payments, has partnered with Datacap Systems to support vertical software companies. Datacap provides hardware and processor-agnostic omnichannel payments. Their joint project allows independent software providers to handle onboarding, customer data management, payments integration, and product support.

SurgePays, a multiproduct company focused on the underbanked and underserved, has entered into an exclusive partnership with ClearLine Mobile to launch a customer-facing LCD tablet interface for convenience store checkout registers. The 10-inch LCD will market SurgePays products 24/7 with ads controlled from a central server. Customers can easily use the device to sign up for the Federal ACP program and conduct wireless activations or payment transactions.

Weave, a platform for small and medium-sized healthcare businesses, has partnered with BNPL provider Affirm to give flexible payment options to eligible patients.

Cashfree Payments, a payments and API banking company in India, has partnered with Shopify to launch onsite ecommerce payments with cards. The service will let Indian merchants collect payments directly without having to redirect their customers to a third party.

FreedomPay has expanded their partnership with Worldpay from FIS, the largest global merchant acquirer, to provide integrated payments and omni-channel technology for retail, hospitality and other enterprises. A phased roll out of their combined services will eventually cover numerous EMEA, North America and APAC markets.

JCB International Indonesia has joined with PT Bank Negara Indonesia to launch JCB's latest credit card, called BNI JCB Ultimate. The card is targeted at the super-premium segment and focuses on dining transactions, which earn cardholders 10x rewards points. All other transaction earn 3X. Points can be redeemed for either airfare or cashback.

North American Bancard has launched Tap to Pay on iPhone for business owners who want to accept contatcless payments in person.

Bluefin, a provider of encryption and tokenization technologies, has added Mastercard Click to Pay to expand ecommerce checkout options for its merchants and their customers. Additionally, merchants can safely store consumer payment information using an encrypted, virtual card number. MyChart powered by Epic is Bluefin’s first integrated partner to use this functionality for payment collection in the healthcare industry.

Ingenico, a provider of POS terminals, software and services, will add Diggecard's prepaid card technology to PPaaS, Ingenico's cloud Payments Platform as a Service. Diggecard's POS services include issuing and redemption as well as details of account balances and expiry. Cards can be distributed by SMS, email or as a QR code.

Square is partnering with Jane Technologies to cater to cannabis sellers in Canada. Jane is an online ordering platform service for cannabis dispensaries. The partnership will allow cannabis dispensaries processing with Square to set up an online store. Cannabis sellers in Ontario will be able to test the Square for Retail POS service before it is launched more widely.

Tuum, a new-age core banking provider, and Paymentology, a next-gen global issuer-processor, will introduce a pre-integrated card-payment processing and core-ledger product for the European and Middle East markets. It will combine Tuum's card-management system with Paymentology’s card issuing and processing platform.

Actum Processing, an ACH payment provider for lenders, has introduced Instant Credits. It allows funders in the cash advance industry to deposit funds instantly through through various channels including direct API integration, integrated SaaS platforms or Actum’s virtual terminal. Clients can use the service to fund deals, pay commissions, or deliver cash to investors and syndicates.

Saxo Bank, headquarted in Copenhagen, has partnered with Mastercard to implement open-banking payments in its investment platforms. Saxo's customers will no longer need to log in to a separate bank account to initiate a manual transfer into their investment account.

Sezzle has expanded its partnership with WooCommerce, an open-source ecommerce platform, to make it easier for WooCommerce merchants to integrate Sezzle's buy now, pay later function into their checkout process.

Sift, providers of a dispute-management product for managing chargebacks, has integrated with PayPal and Adyen. Customers will be able to ingest chargeback data, deliver disputes according to network requirements, confirm delivery of a dispute response and view updates on win/loss outcomes. Sift is also introducing a machine-learning module that provides response recommendations to help customers prevail in a chargeback dispute.

EMVCo has released the draft of EMV Click to Pay Customer Experience (CX) Guidelines for public review and feedback. The guidelines aim to support merchants, payment service providers, product owners, developers and CX designers in simplifying online checkout and making it more consistent, convenient and secure.

UnionPay International has announced that 170 international wallets can now be directly used at merchants that accept UnionPay in China.

Powertranz, a card-present gateway and payments processor in Bermuda, has teamed with Miura Systems to offer a payment service in the Caribbean and Central America using Miura's M010 EMV device for mobile and in-store payments. The Powertranz platform operates in 21 countries including the Jets debit network in Jamaica and Linx in Trinidad and Tobago.

Episode Six, a global provider of enterprise-grade payment processing and ledger infrastructure, now supports installment loans for small to mid-sized business. Called Business Now, Pay Later, the product is available through commercial banks serving SMEs.

Adyen, a global financial technology platform, has issued over two billion active network tokens. The company cites a 3% growth in authorization rates for company's using tokens along with lower processing costs.

Mastercard and UK-based money transfer specialist Paysend have created Open Payment Network to provide instant payments to the estimated 67% of SMEs that send and receive cross-border payments.

ACI Worldwide, now offers an ISO 20022-native digital central infrastructure solution that integrates with ACI Enterprise Payments Platform. It includes consultancy and professional services that support digital overlays like Request to Pay, QR-code payments, back-office management platform and AI-powered fraud technology. It also includes merchant onboarding and management, dispute management and multiple-aliases management.

CSG Forte, a payment platform provider, has launched CSG Forte Engage, a multi-channel, no-code service that enables organizations to leverage NanoSite technology to create customized, secure statements and send them to customers for payment via SMS, email, two-way interactive voice response or contact center.

MagTek's DynaFlex II PIN entry device has achieved PCI PTS 6.x PED certification. DynaFlex II products include an integrated secure card reader authenticator that supports mag stripe cards, barcodes, EMV chip contact and EMV contactless, and NFC-enabled mobile wallets like Samsung Pay, Google Pay and Apple Pay.

Splitit now offers 'Pay After Delivery' to AliExpress shoppers in the US following rollouts across Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, the UK and Australia. The company provides an embedded white-label platform that lets customers pay by installments at checkout by using existing credit on their bank issued payment card.

Affirm will offer customers of Booking.com BNPL options for travel bookings. Affirm already works with Kayak, Agoda, and Priceline. Its travel and ticketing purchase volume grew nearly 50% year-over-year during the quarter ending June 30.

Owners Bank, a new digital-only bank in the US for small business owners, now issues a Mastercard brand business credit card that is open to businesses of all sizes, including sole proprietors. Credit limits can be allocated among as many as six cardholders. The cards are issued by Liberty Bank.

BNY Mellon and Trustly have launched Bankify, an open-banking payment service with guaranteed settlement for business receivables. Bankify was designed with all consumer-to-business payment flows in mind, ranging from merchant payments to bill pay, or account/digital wallet funding.

Fourth quarter revenue of $64.2 million was up 11% YOY. Fiscal year revenue of $243.6 million was up 19% YOY, and US GAAP net income totaled $0.01 million.

The RTP network, an instant payments system operated by The Clearing House, surpassed the one million daily payment milestone on September 1. RTP is available to all insured depository financial institutions in the US. It offers real-time payments with immediate funds availability, confirmation of payment receipt, and payer control of when a payment is sent.

Blackhawk Network is working with Visa to transition its network-branded prepaid products, distributed by third party retail networks, from plastic to paper-based materials.

Hitachi Payment Services, a Japan-based provider of payments and commerce technology, has partnered with National Payments Corporation of India to launch the country's first white label UPI-ATM. It offers cardless withdrawals and gives users access to multiple accounts using the United Payments Interface (UPI) app. White label ATMs are operated by non-banking entities.

Allegiant Air has rebranded its co-branded credit card program as the Allways Rewards Visa card. The card will continue to offer benefits through partners Live Nation and Allegiant Stadium, while giving cardholders more ways to earn and use points.

Scan to Pay, a QR-based payment system in Africa operated by Ukheshe, now offers Scan to Pay vouchers for loyalty and rewards programs. Businesses submit the cellphone numbers of recipients who then receive a prompt to download the app where their voucher is stored. Vouchers can be used to pay bills or for purchases in-store or online. The platform incorporates more than 600,000 vendors, 14 banks and fintech companies, as well as 94 payment service providers as well as six acquirers.

Pointspay, a loyalty services provider, has launched the new MarPay platform for merchants which combines marketing, payments and programs. MarPay has shown customers average increase sales value of over 30% overall, which includes an increase of 232% e-commerce revenue, 194% increase in redeemed loyalty points and a 277% increase in cash sales from members of loyalty programs using the new platform in April & May. Pointspay is a subsidiary of Loylogic Group. Dominic Hofer is CEO, dominic.hofer@loylogic.com, www.pointspay.com. 9/5

InComm Payments, a payment technology company, has partnered with Southeastern Grocers (SEG), parent company of Fresco y Más, Harveys Supermarket and Winn-Dixie grocery stores, to join the InComm Healthcare over-the-counter Network to provide healthcare plans with supplemental benefit cards that encourage their members to purchase healthy foods and other wellness products at participating retailers.

Nayax is bringing its CoinBridge Loyalty to Payments open-loop payments service to market in partnership with Giift, a loyalty technology provider. Consumers can convert loyalty points, miles or other loyalty assets for payments at any merchant.

Synchrony has signed a 5-year agreement with Specialty1 Partners to offer Synchrony's CreditCare as an option to Speciaty1's network of over 225 endodontic, periodontic and oral surgery offices nationwide.

Weave has launched Scan to Pay, a QR-code scanning capability to streamline the payment process for small and medium sized healthcare practices.

Nuvei offers APAC online traders secure real-time cash-outs through Mastercard Send. Mastercard Send services already in use in Singapore will be avaiable in Australia and Hong Kong later this year. Nuvei customers will be able to process payouts, including business to consumer disbursments and funding transactions, between over 1.5 billion debit, credit and prepaid Mastercard cards.

Worldline's Trusted Authentication service has been certified by the FIDO Alliance. This password-free web-based authentication service, which combines FIDO authenticators and Worldline’s back-end server, provides customer authentication for online banking use cases, 3DS payments, digital identity and delegated authentication to retailers.

USAA has reached a licensing agreement with Discover Financial Services to license more than 130 USAA patents relating to technology that lets customer deposit cheques through their mobile phones.

ClearSale, a global provider of business intelligence and risk prevention, has released a new client portal that allows customers to view and manage their fraud-prevention data, orders, and chargebacks down to the transaction level.

POSaBit Systems, a payments provider in the cannabis industry, reports revenue of $13.5 million for the second quarter June 30, 2023 was up 65% YOY, with 52% representing Organic Growth.

TransUnion reports that identity fraud is one of the largest components in the continuing growth of fraud risk, accounting for nearly $3 billion. While auto loans account for more than 60% of total exposure to synthetic identities ($1.8 billion), bank-issued credit cards came next with 33% ($994 billion).

Fiserv, a global provider of technology for payments and financial services, is collaborating with Akoya to secure data sharing among financial institutions, their customers, and third parties with which they do business. Akoya is an API-only network that handles consumer-permissioned sharing of financial data.

Repay Holdings, a provider of vertically-integrated payment technology, has expanded the acceptance capabilities for its eCash service. Lenders and other businesses can use eCash to accept bill and loan-installment payments from their customers at nearly 100,000 US retail locations. Consumers can select eCash at checkout to generate a barcode which they take to the nearest participating retail location for the retailer to scan and accept the cash. Once the transaction is completed through a financial network utilized by Repay, the funds are deposited to the client and the payment is automatically posted.

Solana Pay, a decentralized, open-source, peer-to-peer payments protocol built on Solana by Solana Labs, has been approved as an app integration with Shopify Inc. The technology is designed to give merchants real-time access to their money and greater ability to manage working capital, liquidity, and liability protection. It eliminates bank fees, chargebacks, and holding times while enabling immediate, direct payment settlement of USD stablecoins compatible with Solana.

CardX, operators of a surcharge-compliance platform, advocated for a bill in New Jersey that would make it illegal for merchants to impose a credit card surcharge that exceeds the payment processing cost. That bill, Assembly Bill 4284, has been signed into law by Governor Phil Murphy.

FNBO, the 16th largest US credit card issuer, has partnered with Visa to launch instant digital issuance capabilities. The technology delivers account credentials to a user’s mobile wallet without the user having to download an app. 

Origami Risk, a provider of cloud-based SaaS-based technology for the risk and insurance industry, is integrating technology from One Inc, a digital-payments network for the insurance industry. The integration allows insurance carriers to distribute claims payments to their policyholders using consumer payment platforms such as Venmo and PayPal. 

BizGift is an online startup that adds a company’s business card to the front of a private label prepaid card with any denomination printed on the back. Activations and redemptions are tracked through the BizGift platform, which only charges the account holder for the value of private label cards that are activated.

Careem Pay, a payment platform developed by Careem in Dubai, has partnered with Mastercard and Checkout.com in order to integrate Mastercard Send. Careem is a multi-service app offering ride-hailing, delivery, fintech, and home services. The integration allows their customers in the UAE to use their digital wallets to access near real-time payments and transfer money.

Dock, a provider of payments and banking technology in Latin America, has partnered with Feedzai, a specialist in fraud and money laundering prevention.Dock clients will be able to access the Dock managed service and the Feedzai’s RiskOps Platform, and there are plans for Dock to integrate Feedzai’s money-laundering prevention services.

Riskified, a global card-issuing platform, has introduced Marqeta Docs AI, an AI-powered external-facing question and answer tool for launching embedded financal services. The company also announced an AI code-generation test that it claims reduces the amount of time spent on coding and testing tasks by up to 75%.

Ugraded has partnered with Citizens Pay and GatorTec to launch a MacBook upgrade program in the US. It allows consumers to buy new MacBooks at a discounted price and pay for them monthly, with upgrades available every two years. In Scandinavia (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden), a similar program generated over $100 million in sales. Upgraded is a Y Combinator-backed company with additional investments from Gril Ventures, Joe Montana’s Liquid 2 Ventures and Oyster Ventures.

Riskified, a provider of a machine-learning platform for automated fraud and risk decisioning, has enhanced its partnership with Mastercard to protect merchants engaged in ecommerce. Mastercard adds products and services to Riskified’s transaction and identity network along with a suite of tools for real-time chargeback alerts and automated dispute resolution.

Ugraded has partnered with Citizens Pay and GatorTec to launch a MacBook upgrade program in the US. It allows consumers to buy new MacBooks at a discounted price and pay for them monthly, with upgrades available every two years. In Scandinavia (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden), a similar program generated over $100 million in sales. Upgraded is a Y Combinator-backed company with additional investments from Gril Ventures, Joe Montana’s Liquid 2 Ventures and Oyster Ventures.

ChargeAfter, an embedded lending platform for point-of-sale financing, is partnering with Wells Fargo Retail Services to allow merchants using its platform to offer Wells Fargo’s private label credit programs.

DataVisor, an AI-powered fraud and risk platform, has released its Real-Time Payment Fraud Solution with advanced machine-learning techniques and prebuilt rules for real-time payment fraud scenarios. The offering is designed to help financial institutions handle technologies facilitated by entities such as The Clearing House and Zelle.

Worldline, a global digital-commerce payment processor, is working with FiveBy, a risk intelligence and fraud consultancy, to implement the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Fraud Protection platform for their clients. Microsoft’s stand-alone fraud protection platform offers both AI and machine learning, particularly important when customers use unfamiliar payment methods while shopping in international markets.

Velo Payments is acquiring YapStone, a payment-processing platform for companies in the short-term and vacation rental industry. Velo's complex disbursements platform that handles open banking.

Paysafe has reported revenue of $402.3 million for 2Q 2023, up 6% or 5% on a constant currency basis. Total payment volume of $35.5 billion was up 6%.

Jack Henry & Associates has reported GAAP revenue increased 7% and GAAP operating income increased 1% for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2023, compared to the prior fiscal year. Non-GAAP adjusted revenue increased 8% and non-GAAP adjusted operating income increased 8%

Marqeta, a global card-issuing platform, has introduced Marqeta Docs AI, an AI-powered external-facing question and answer tool for launching embedded finance services. The company also announced AI code generation test that it claims reduces the amount of time spent on coding and testing tasks by up to 75%.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has granted Payoneer Singapore Private, a subsidiary of the US-listed fintech firm Payoneer Global, a major payment institution license. The license will allow Payoneer to broaden its product offering and launch new services in Singapore, particularly in account issuance, cross-border money transfer, domestic money transfer, e-money issuance and merchant acquisition.

SumUp, a global fintech, now operates in 36 markets with the recent addition of Australia. The London-headquartered company offers card readers for accepting major credit and debit cards by chip & PIN or contactless. Merchants can accept online payments by sharing a link with customers.

Wema Bank in Nigeria will expand its ecommerce payment capabilities by partnering with Enza, providers of payment orchestration technology. The partnership aims to enhance payments security, increase service reliability and reduce operating costs through transaction optimization.

Visa has extended its collaboration with Conferma Pay to further enhance Visa Commercial Pay, a suite of B2B payment services that includes virtual commercial cards. Conferma is a provider of virtual payments technology. Visa Commercial Pay has been rolled out to select clients, including early adopters such as Commerce Bank, OCBC, and Umpqua Bank. 

Shazam, which operates a debit and ATM network will provide Mozrt, a fintech, with real-time fund validation in order to issue both virtual and physical cards.

Visa will offer Uplinq Financial’s credit-decisioning technology to financial institutions in the US and Canada to help lenders mitigate risk as well as expand access to fair credit for small business owners.

Sunmi, provider of a business digitization service, has completed two EMV level 3 payment certifications in the United States. The POSRouter payment application that runs on Sunmi's P-Series payment devices is now certified with Fiserv Rapid Connect and the TSYS Multipass platforms.

The Payabl. Group, a Cyprus-based start up, has secured a license from the Electronic Money Institution in the UK. The company is hiring payment experts and adding to its merchant portfolio. 

Pulse, a Discover Financial Services company and operator of the Pulse debit network, has extended its partnership with FICO to deliver fraud-detection technology for financial institutions, merchants and consumers worldwide.

Quisitive Technology Solutions has migrated its patented AgeChecker.Net, used for ecommerce age verification, to PayiQ’s payment processing, allowing Quisitive to handle monthly payments for over 700 customers. PayiQ will provide Visa and Mastercard authorization, clearance and settlement services.

Vanco Payments, providers of RevTrak software for managing payments to K-12 schools, will add fundraising management by integrating with a platform from Livingtree Partner. Tools include online campaigns, peer-to-peer fundraising, event management, and donor analytics.

i3 Verticals has reported revenue of $93.9 million for 3Q 2023, up 16.6% over the prior year's third quarter. Revenue for the nine months ended June 30, 2023, was $273.8 million, an increase of 17.7% over the prior year's first nine months.

U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, DC affirmed a district court decision on July 28,2023, regarding a class-action lawsuit by independent ATM operators against Visa and Mastercard. The litigation contends network rules are anticompetitive and a violation of antitrust laws. “Requiring ATM operators to set the same surcharge for all networks accepted at an ATM is unlawful price fixing,” according to the plaintiffs’ attorney. The ATM operators are represented by MoginRubin, LLP, www.moginrubin.com.

Marqeta, a global card issuing platform, reported that during the second quarter ended June 30, 2023, total processing volume was $54 billion, up 33% YOY. Net revenue of $231 million was up 24%.

EMVCo has released security requirements to support the development of multi-factor authentication (MFA) technology capable of preventing or detecting attacks that could compromise the security of payment authentication. The ‘Multi-Factor Authentication Solutions for Payments Security Requirements’ document is publicly available from the EMVCo website.