ANNOUNCEMENTSACI Worldwide, a provider of real-time payment and banking solutions, was recognized by Finance Monthly Fintech Awards 2018 as the Leading Fraud Innovation Firm – USA for its UP Payments Risk Management solution. The awards recognize businesses and individuals driving the fintech sector through innovation in financial technology, including payments innovation, customer experience, data and cybersecurity. ACI's solution utilizes advanced data analytics, adaptive machine learning and customer profiling techniques.
The Technology Association of Georgia selected Bluefin Payment Systems LLC as one of its Top 40 Innovative Technology Companies in Georgia for the third time. Bluefin provides PCI-validated point-to-point encryption solutions for retail, healthcare and higher education. Its Decryptx decryption-as-a-service solution is protected by multiple U.S. and Japanese patents. Honorees were selected from over 100 applicants from across Georgia.
The Smart Payment Association and CPI Card Group Inc. signed a memorandum of understanding through which CPI will become a Market Monitoring Advisory Council Member of the SPA, the trade body for smart payment technology providers. The SPA collects data to generate independently verified market statistics and provides free reports to SPA members. It launched two new Market Monitoring Advisory Councils to enable non-SPA member organizations to participate in the activities of the SPA and access its most up-to-date marketplace data.
Ethisphere Institute named TSYS one of the 2018 World's Most Ethical Companies in the payment services category. The Ethisphere Institute is a global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices. This is the sixth time in the past seven years TSYS has received this recognition. Also, in its inaugural year, Thomson Reuters selected TSYS as a Top 100 Global Technology Leader. This was based on evaluation of the company's leadership across eight pillars of performance.
IdentityMind Global recently closed a $10 million Series C round of financing. In addition to all existing investors, the round was co-led by Benhamou Global Ventures and Eastern Link Capital and included Hanna Ventures, Overstock.com and Zanadu Capital Partners. IdentityMind's platform builds, maintains and analyzes digital identities worldwide, allowing companies to perform identity proofing, risk-based authentication, regulatory identification, and to detect and prevent identity fraud.
Ingenico Group went to bat for the NSPCC, a children's charity fighting to end child abuse in the U.K. and Channel Islands, by raising almost £15,000 at The Card and Payments Awards evening in February. For the past eight years, Ingenico has supported the event by providing payment solutions to help raise money for charity. This year, Ingenico employed the Connected Screen, which enabled donors to engage and give using cashless technology. Guests interacted with the screen via contactless cards, wristbands, watches, rings and smartphones.
The National ATM Council Inc. filed a public petition on behalf of the U.S. ATM industry and consumers requesting that Visa Inc. amend its network rules to authorize the provision of dynamic currency conversion (DCC) services on Visa transactions at U.S. ATMs, effective April 1, 2018. NAC noted that Mastercard allows DCC. "DCC services provide the transparency and real-time information needed by consumers from abroad to better understand their cash withdrawals from U.S. ATMs in terms of the cardholder's home currency," said Bruce Renard, NAC Executive Director.
RESEARCHKPMG LLP reported that U.S. fintech investment increased for the third straight quarter to reach $5.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2017, and the U.S. fourth-quarter investment accounted for two-thirds of the total global investment of $8.7 billion. The trend was aided by a strong U.S. economy and a dramatic increase in private equity investment, according to the KPMG Pulse of Fintech report.
Mercator Advisory Group's Business Banking Services: Keeping Up with Millennial Owners report is the third of three Insight Summary Reports summarizing the results of its 2017 U.S. Small Business Payments and Banking Survey, a 2017 web-based survey of 1,638 U.S. small businesses that accept payment cards. The survey found that 27 percent of U.S. small businesses use online alternative lenders, slightly fewer than in 2016. Forty-eight percent of millennial owners (ages 18 to 34) reported having a loan from an alternative lender, compared with 25 percent of business owners ages 35 and older.
As part of congressional testimony offered before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, the National ATM Council submitted findings from an independent study on the U.S. ATM marketplace. Titled Location Study of ATMs in U.S. by Ownership, 2018, it details independent and bank-owned ATM distribution throughout America. The study found that 470,135 ATMs are in service today in the United States, with banks and other financial institutions accounting for 191,741 of the total. The remaining 278,394 are owned and operated by nonbank ATM providers.
PARTNERSHIPSBluefin Payment Systems is working with Datacap Systems Inc. and Monetary LLC to provide Bluefin's Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS)-validated point-to-point encryption solution to merchants utilizing Monetary's connected commerce platform and Datacap's integration partners. Monetary's platform blends multiprocessor payments, tokenization, automation, loyalty, offers, and gift cards, and creates customized in-store, web and mobile experiences for software developers, merchants, and their customers. Bluefin enables PCI-validated P2PE on partner platforms with its Decryptx decryption-as-a-service product.
Factor4 LLC, a provider of gift card and loyalty solutions, teamed up with Sterling Payment Technologies and Aldelo LP. Factor4's proprietary software is now integrated with Aldelo Express iPad, Aldelo Restaurant and XERA Restaurant POS solutions. Factor4's partnership with Sterling furthers its goal of solidifying relationships with key accounts, Factor4 stated.
Petroleum Card Services, a provider of payment processing solutions geared for independent petroleum and convenience store owners, entered into a preferred partnership with the California Independent Oil Marketers Association. The partnership brings exclusive membership benefits for CIOMA's network of independent wholesale and retail marketers of gasoline, diesel, lubricating oils and other petroleum products; transporters of those products; and retail convenience store operators.
Sterling Payment Technologies reported that Retail Realm Distribution's Microsoft Dynamics payment applications now integrate with Sterling's processing platform, which allows international retailers to facilitate payments in more than 50 countries through a single point of contact. Sterling's platform also includes proprietary interchange optimization technology, which lowers the cost of credit card acceptance for large retailers and B2B companies by ensuring every transaction is processed at the lowest qualifying interchange rate, Sterling noted.
ACQUISITIONSNMI, a provider of payments enablement technology for ISOs, independent software vendors, value-added resellers and payment facilitators, signed a definitive agreement to acquire Creditcall, an omnichannel payment gateway and EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa) solutions provider. Roy Banks, CEO of NMI, said, "The need for a single vendor and platform that seamlessly integrates and simplifies the complexities of card-present and card-not-present payments has never been greater, and the combination of NMI and Creditcall will finally deliver a true omnichannel solution."
Shift4 Payments LLC completed acquisition of the long-established ISO IRN Payment Systems d/b/a CurvePay. CurvePay's technology provides credit card processing services for tens of thousands of taxis across the United States and will add millions of annual transactions to the Shift4 Payments secure payment platform, Shift4 stated, adding that CurvePay's technology and operations will be absorbed into Harbortouch, one of Shift4 Payments' several POS brands.
APPOINTMENTSClickPay appointed Brian Ball as a National Sales Director. He represents the first in a number of strategic hires to support ClickPay's North American expansion and will play a key role in driving national sales strategies to generate demand and achieve growth, the company stated. Ball joins ClickPay with over 15 years residential and commercial real estate market experience. He was most recently the National Accounts Director for Nexus Systems LLC.
Joe Lazewski is the new Vice President of Strategic Accounts at Sionic Mobile Corp. In this role, Lazewski will oversee development of growth strategies for mobile app user acquisition and focus on helping partners connect their users to Sionic's Mobile Rewards Marketplace via the company's connected commerce platform. With more than 25 years of experience, Lazewski is recognized as a sales leader specializing in complex sales cycles and long-term customer relationships. Previously, he was a senior executive for Zendesk.
GovTech100 cloud-platform provider PayIt LLC added Mike Wons to its Board of Advisors. After two years serving as Illinois' first statewide Chief Technology Officer, Wons returned to the private sector to focus on risk, compliance and cybersecurity. PayIt founder and CEO John Thomson stated, "Mike brings an understanding of the complex nature of state and local government along with a track record of implementing initiatives aimed at making government smarter and work better for citizens." 
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