ANNOUNCEMENTSThe ATM Industry Association supports the Counter Terrorism and Illicit Finance Act, H.R. 6068 proposal to increase the threshold for requiring completion of a Currency Transaction Report (CTS) from $10,000 to $30,000. Banks must complete CTRs when facilitating cash transactions above the threshold, which creates additional burden and expense for legitimate transactions between legitimate businesses, ATMIA noted, adding that the $10,000 threshold first implemented under the Bank Secrecy Act has not changed in nearly 50 years.
The Strawhecker Group selected Authorize.Net as its API Integration Payment Gateway Award winner. "Powered by TSG's Gateway Enterprise Metrics (GEM) platform, the firm is recognizing Authorize.Net due to their excellent performance across an assessment of their API and developer tools," TSG stated. As part of GEM, TSG delivers an assessment of application programming interface set, developer tools, sandbox and emulator by conducting an integration into the gateway via an ecommerce application, as well as benchmarking documentation. The API Integration Runner-Up was Elavon Inc.'s Converge gateway (formerly Virtual Merchant).
Flywire gained $100 million in new venture funding. The Series-D round was led by Temasek Holdings Private Ltd., an investment company headquartered in Singapore, and joined by existing Flywire investors including Bain Capital Ventures and F-Prime Capital Partners. Flywire noted it has processed over $8 billion for over 1,400 clients in business, education and healthcare via its global payment network and processing platform, and it plans to use the investment to accelerate growth.
Brooklyn, N.Y.-based IRIS CRM, an all-in-one payment processing customer relationship management provider that supports over 250,000 active merchants via more than 100 registered ISOs, officially rolled out its Tech Hub community-based chat platform. According to IRIS CRM, by engaging with other ISOs, valuable information and best practices can be shared through real-time chat, which the company hopes will foster a closer-knit ISO community.
Electronic Transactions Association CEO Jason Oxman testified July 26, 2018, before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security and Subcommittee on Government Operations. On behalf of the ETA's 500 member companies, he spoke in support of a collaborative approach between government and industry to fight fraud. "The payments industry is committed to protecting consumers from harm," Oxman stated before his scheduled testimony. "But instead of viewing payments companies as partners in the fight against fraud, the FTC's enforcement actions and unjust investigative techniques are pressuring processors to shun entire lines of business, harming merchants and innovation."
Donna Embry, Payment Alliance International's chief payments officer, was awarded the international 2018 PayTech Leadership Award at a ceremony in London. The Award recognized Embry for playing an instrumental role in devising and delivering the technology strategy to support key business objectives, and for her distinguished leadership and professional contribution to the industry's betterment around the globe. The PayTech awards recognize excellence and innovation in the use of information technology in the finance and payments industry worldwide, and the people who make it happen.
Stronghold Institutional Services Ltd., a financial institution building an asset-agnostic global payment and trade ecosystem, heralded "the first and only venture-backed USD Anchor" on the Stellar Network, an open-source protocol for value exchange. The Stronghold USD token is asset-backed (at one-to-one U.S. dollars per coin) with reserves held by a state-chartered trust company, Stronghold noted, adding that it will use Stellar's blockchain protocol to issue and transact Stronghold USD. Stronghold also disclosed a new collaboration with IBM to explore uses for Stronghold USD within blockchain business networks on the IBM Blockchain Platform.
RESEARCHBlackhawk Network Inc.'s 2018 State of Consumer Gift Card Preferences Study outlines trends in consumer gift card preferences and highlights consumer and employee preferences for gift cards as incentives. While it found consumers today purchase more physical than digital gift cards, digital gift card purchases are poised for continued growth. Over half of consumers surveyed report interest in giving digital gift cards that can be added to a mobile app or digital wallet, especially millennials (69 percent) and smart phone users (59 percent), whose interest far exceeded that of those without smartphones (17 percent).
Juniper Research predicted mobile biometrics will authenticate $2 trillion worth of in-store and remote mobile payment transactions annually by 2023, up from $124 billion forecast this year, as initiatives furthering secure remote payment transactions and more open biometric platforms proliferate. The fastest growth is expected to come from biometrically verified remote mobile commerce transactions, which according to Juniper is projected to exceed 48 billion in volume by 2023.
RemoteDepositCapture.com launched the industry's fifth annual Mobile Remote Deposit Capture (mRDC) Industry Study. Designed for financial institutions offering mRDC, the results will benchmark activities across several categories including customer selection, risk management, pricing, availability, systemic capabilities, risk perceptions and more. Market segments covered include Consumer, Small Business and Corporate/Treasury. The study will also provide insights into how financial institutions are adjusting to the new Regulation CC and related restrictive endorsement policies. To participate, please visit https://rdc.polldaddy.com/s/mrdc2018.
PARTNERSHIPSIngenico Group selected MapR Technologies Inc.'s MapR Data Platform to serve as the foundational data layer for its payment processing systems, which handle 5.1 billion transactions across more than 300 payment types within 170 countries. Following recent acquisitions, Ingenico selected MapR to help integrate and consolidate multiple data systems. The MapR Data Platform's ability to provide a single point of control for data is considered a vital tool for managing regulatory oversight including General Data Protection Regulation compliance procedures.
MagTek Inc., a provider of retail electronic payments and security technology, teamed with payments provider DishOut LLC to offer an easy-to-use, secure white-label mobile payment solution. The combination of MagTek's eDynamo secure card reader authenticator for magstripe and EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa) cards and Magensa Decrypt and Forward service, with DishOut's brandable mobile payment application, offers flexibility to ISOs and resellers.
TranzVia LLC, a provider of payment processing services, and JetPay Corp., an end-to-end processor of payment and human capital management services, co-launched TranzFreedom, a nationwide cash discount program. TranzFreedom will be powered by JetPay's JetX cash discount program. As a super-ISO, TranzVia supports ISO and agent delivery of such programs as TranzFreedom through its proven marketing, sales and delivery services, the company noted.
Utimaco GmbH, a manufacturer of hardware security module (HSM) technology, tapped ThothTrust to protect digital wallets and their cryptocurrency assets with Utimaco HSMs and the CryptoScript software development kit. The product offers different security levels and customization options to create a secure environment corresponding to the customer's unique requirements. In the case of digital wallets, a wallet security module ensures cryptocurrency asset security based on a Utimaco HSM as its hardware root of trust.
ACQUISITIONSAccenture acquired Kogentix, an enterprise-level big data and artificial intelligence services and solutions provider. The acquisition is expected to further strengthen Accenture Applied Intelligence's growing data engineering business, particularly in North America, as companies increasingly look to harness open source big data and advanced analytics technologies to identify revenue growth and cost reduction opportunities enterprise wide, Accenture stated.
Clearent Software Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of payments solutions provider Clearent LLC, completed the purchase of Compassmax, a dry-cleaning POS software developer. Compassmax joins Clearent's recently acquired SPOT Business Systems LLC, a provider of web- and POS-based dry cleaning business management tools. Clearent plans to combine the companies' operations on the SPOT platform over time. The combined entities will retain the SPOT name and continue to fully support the Compassmax software solution, Clearent noted.
Online and mobile food-ordering and delivery marketplace Grubhub Inc. entered into an agreement to acquire Boston-based mobile diner engagement and payments provider LevelUp for $390 million in cash, subject to standard closing conditions. "LevelUp's leading restaurant-facing technology and the team they have built in Boston will help Grubhub provide the most comprehensive solution for restaurants, powering everything from online demand generation to fulfillment for restaurants," said Matt Maloney, Grubhub co-founder and CEO.
Payment processor Priority Holdings LLC and M I Acquisitions Inc., a Magna-sponsored special purpose acquisition company, completed their business combination, which was approved by M I stockholders on July 19, 2018. The combined company was renamed Priority Technology Holdings Inc. Thomas C. Priore, executive chairman of PTH, stated, "Adding a public currency to our capital structure positions Priority's consumer and B2B payments business units to capitalize on the scalability of our payment technology as a consolidating operating platform for payments and payment-enabled software companies."
APPOINTMENTSPOSData Group Inc., a distributor of secure payment solutions, hired Chrissy Ouellette as senior director of payments and business development. Ouellette brings extensive fintech sales, service and operational experience to the company, along with expertise designing, implementing and leading strategic initiatives encompassing world-class service delivery and product development, the company said. Ouellette has over a decade of payments industry experience, having worked for Vanco Payment Solutions, Meritus Payment Solutions and Central Payment.
American Payment Solutions and its Canadian division North American Payment Solutions welcomed Christina Serian as the company's senior marketing manager. Among other responsibilities, she will lead the marketing department. Serian has experience working in the Sage Software community, providing critical information to both software resellers and end users, APS said. Phil Heath, president of APS, stated, "Christina is instrumental in bringing a tighter focus on partner and client relationships."
Rich Consulting and Double Diamond Group LLC expanded their payment facilitator consulting team with the addition of Dan Spalinger as a senior consultant. Spalinger will be responsible for expanding the team's personnel, capabilities and resources to enhance client support and project execution, the companies stated. Spalinger has worked for some of the industry's most notable banks and acquirers, and has spent more than 18 years focused on credit, underwriting and risk management. Most recently, he was senior leader in charge of the payfac business at Worldpay.
The Green Sheet Inc. is now a proud affiliate of Bankcard Life, a premier community that provides industry-leading training and resources for payment professionals. Click here for more information.
Notice to readers: These are archived articles. Contact names or information may be out of date. We regret any inconvenience.
Prev Next
