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IndustryUpdate

100 vendors and comprising 8.5 million POS installa- Duffel, Stripe enable flight payments
tions, RBR stated, adding that the study report includes
commentary and insights into the grocery, general mer- Flights API provider Duffel launched Duffel Payments
chandise and hospitality segments, at individual country to enable travel businesses to take customer payments
level. online by integrating with Duffel's API. This, according
to Duffel, puts them in control of the payments process
Verifone identifies 2022 ecommerce trends and enables them to make money from selling flights.
The platform was built for the travel industry in partner-
Verifone, a provider of end-to-end payment and com- ship with Stripe to underpin the platform's security and
merce solutions, released survey results identifying 2022 reliability. "New travel businesses can start selling flights
ecommerce trends. Insights are based on an ecommerce with Duffel Payments in a matter of minutes with no
trends survey Verifone conducted with 500 companies upfront capital or down payments," Duffel stated, add-
across the world. Participants included C-level execu- ing that this combats the lengthy applications, approval
tives, vice presidents and senior managers from online processes and large bond that are usually necessary
sellers of physical or digital goods and services, span- when using a PSP, while allowing travel sellers to mark
ning a spectrum of industries, Verifone noted. up their fares and bundle other travel products together.

"Having tackled the dual challenge of digital transition U.S. Faster Payments Council, Identifee team up
and consolidation last year, online sellers, this year, will
be focused on strategies to help them stand out in the The U.S. Faster Payments Council, a membership orga-
increasingly competitive digital commerce space and nization devoted to advancing safe, easy-to-use faster
gain an edge by better meeting customer expectations," payments in the United States, formed a strategic part-
researchers noted. "The main priorities planned for 2022 nership with Identifee to develop new faster payments
center around launching new products and enhancing educational content. Identifee will be creating a series of
the overall user experience, especially in the context of video micro-lessons, built from the FPC's library of con-
cross-border expansion objectives." tent and tailored for payment industry executives. Slated
to launch by the end of the first quarter of 2022, the
Visa index finds Omicron impact modest on-demand videos will be exclusively available to FPC
members from financial institutions, technology provid-
Visa reported that the U.S. Spending Momentum Index, ers, payment network operators, business end users,
which is an economic indicator of the consumer spend- consumer organizations, and more, the council stated.
ing health, was 102.4 in January 2022 (seasonally adjust-
ed), down from a revised 109.4 in December 2021. When ACQUISITIONS
the Visa SMI rises above 100, the consumer spending
momentum is strengthening; when it falls below 100,
it is weakening as fewer consumers are spending more FIS acquires Payrix
relative to the previous year. The SMI's decline from
December was due largely to the rise in new COVID-19 Financial technology provider FIS enhanced its embed-
cases with the spread of the Omicron variant, Visa noted, ded payments strategy with the acquisition of Payrix.
adding that the latest wave's impact on spending was This acquisition aligns with FIS' strategy to expand
less than prior outbreaks and for the most part has not its ecommerce offerings to companies of all sizes, and
derailed the recovery, as more households continue to in any industry, by embedding payments capabili-
spend more than they did last year. ties within software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms, FIS
stated. This acquisition will also enable FIS to unlock
PARTNERSHIPS the value of its broad solution portfolio by delivering
embedded finance capabilities in addition to its ecom-
merce offerings to small and midsize businesses, FIS
Chargezoom, Fiserv partner for CardConnect added. Founded in 2015, Payrix specializes in enabling
SaaS-based platforms to embed payments and financial
Chargezoom, a platform for billing and integrat- technology into their offerings to enhance payments for
ed payments, partnered with Fiserv in support of SMBs.
its CardConnect payment division. The partnership
expands the number of gateways offered to Chargezoom PAI gains TouchPoint 21
users and allows CardConnect's partners and their mer-
chants to benefit from fully integrated payment process- PAI, a Brinks company, acquired Texas-based
ing and automation, Chargezoom stated. "It's exciting to TouchPoint 21, which provides ATM and cash manage-
partner with a Fortune 500 organization like Fiserv, that ment outsourcing for financial institutions. PAI said the
has a strong history of supporting growing businesses acquisition brings a mature, proven managed service
and shares our vision for the future of integrated pay- model to PAI, enabled by TouchPoint 21's expertise in
ments.," said Matt Dubois, CEO of Chargezoom. advanced ATM and interactive teller machine (ITM)

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