ANNOUNCEMENTSArizent and the Best Companies Group named Finicity one of the 2020 Best Places to Work in Financial Technology. This is the third time Finicity has received this award.
This annual survey and awards program is designed to identify, recognize and honor the best employers in the fintech industry. Companies recognized on this year's list operate in and serve companies and consumers in a wide range of financial services including banking and mortgages, insurance, payments, and financial advisory, Finicity stated.
Trust Stamp, an AI powered authentication services company received a strategic investment from Mastercard. Trust Stamp is a graduate of the 2018 Mastercard Start Path accelerator program. Trust Stamp CEO Gareth N. Genner said, "Our initial work with Mastercard has been focused upon enhancing privacy and data security in environments with low connectivity, and we have been impressed by the breadth and depth of Mastercard's commitment to that space."
North American digital payments platform Sezzle Inc. reported it now has more than 1 million active end-customers. About this milestone, Paul Paradis, Sezzle's chief revenue officer and co-founder, stated, "Whether it's our commitment to transparency, our flexible payment terms, our user-friendly experience, or our expanding universe of retail partners, Sezzle is definitely gaining traction as the marquee 'buy now, pay later' solution in the U.S."
The Strawhecker Group, an analytics and consulting firm focused on payments acceptance, reported that it launched TransactionWatch, a weekly newsletter for payments executives covering the most important, relevant merchant acquiring M&A activity. "It is a first-of-its-kind product and was developed for the world's cutting-edge payment executives, corporate strategists, and private equity groups that operate or have a focus in the industry," TSG noted.
RESEARCHThe Electronic Transactions Association released its annual white paper exploring fintech products and services that broaden access to the payments and financial services ecosystems. According to the ETA, the report, How FinTech is Addressing the Needs of the Underserved, highlights the innovative products and services revolutionizing the way commerce is conducted through safe, secure, convenient and rewarding solutions.
Fiserv Inc. published a white paper outlining how financial institutions (FIs) that take a strategic approach to open banking can enable competitive differentiation, better customer experiences and accelerated growth. In the paper, Fiserv details three ways FIs can use open banking to enhance their competitiveness: moving faster to develop and deliver high-value experiences, partnering with complementary fintechs to expand their services, and offering banking as a service to fuel a tech company's banking functionality.
Paysafe unveiled research into the impact of 5G on mobile sports betting in the United States, UK and Germany. Researchers found that 42 percent of regular sports bettors across countries anticipate increasing their in-play sports betting activity with the emergence of 5G; 21 percent indicated 5G means they plan to increase the number of sports they bet on; only 14 percent stated they currently have no concerns about placing bets during events. With 34 percent of all active U.S. players preferring to place bets on a smartphone or tablet, the advent of 5G suggests American bettors will feel more comfortable wagering more, as the risk of slow connectivity will be reduced, Paysafe noted.
PARTNERSHIPSBluefin, a provider of payment security technologies and PCI-validated point-to-point encryption (P2PE) solutions, partnered with payment provider FroogalPay to give users of FroogalPay's multi-gateway, hardware agnostic platform access to Bluefin's PCI-validated P2PE solution. The benefits of the Bluefin and FroogalPay P2PE solution include reducing PCI scope from 329 to 33 questions on the P2PE self-assessment questionnaire, which in turn provides significant cost and efficiency savings; online management of the P2PE device process with Bluefin's P2PE Manager; and seamless integration with FroogalPay's platforms, the partners stated.
Payment technology provider Fattmerchant teamed up with accounting firm Acuity to reduce merchants' credit card processing fees by bringing Acuity's clients access to Fattmerchant's Omni platform and subscription-based pricing structure. Omni consolidates the payment experience into one easy-to-use platform, offering merchants a cutting-edge dashboard that provides detailed payment data and customer analytics across payment channels and allows clients to use Fattmerchant as their processor but keep existing operations within QuickBooks Online, Fattmerchant stated.
Ingenico Group's Ingenico Enterprise Retail and 3C Payment expanded their relationship, to create two new terminal solutions that process payments through the 3C Integra Payment Gateway with Ingenico's DESK/5000 and MOVE/5000 payment terminals. The new solutions satisfy the latest security requirements for PCI-PTS 5.x and P2PE, with the Telium Tetra Native T3 OS developed directly to 3C Payment's proprietary Integra gateway platform, the partners noted.
Coinsquare Networks Inc., whose software allows customers to buy bitcoin from traditional ATMs in the United States using debit cards, teamed up with Triton and other leading ATM manufacturers to create Triton Connect, a solution that integrates seamlessly with customers' everyday ATM experience. "For ATM ISOs this means a new, high margin revenue stream that requires only a software update," Coinsquare stated. The software uses the existing ATM network and infrastructure to execute transactions.
ACQUISITIONCharitable giving fintech Goodworld stated it acquired Bstow Inc. (dba Cheerful Giving) to power causes in a modern world. "[T]hese two leading brands have come together to launch an innovative fundraising solution for today's nonprofit and social impact sectors," the companies stated, adding that under the Cheerful Giving brand, a "simple, free, first-of-its-kind platform" brings together the best of tried and tested fundraising technology with the social and mobile digital tools demanded by younger generations.
APPOINTMENTSDigital bank Radius Bank hired Grant Skeens as its executive vice president and national director of government guaranteed lending. Skeens brings to this role nearly 25 years' experience as a senior executive at Security National Automotive Acceptance Company, USAA Federal Savings Bank, KeyBank and GE Capital. He is also on the board of PayLink Direct, a financial services firm that provides interest-free payment plans for vehicle service contracts.
Dispute management specialist Chargebacks911 today appointed Andy Tierney as vice president of strategic accounts. In his role, Tierney will specialize in expanding relationships with payment processors, gateways, acquiring banks and merchants, as well as increasing adoption-rates of Chargebacks911 platforms and helping to manage Chargebacks911's rapid growth. Tierney has over seven years' experience in the fintech industry. Before joining Chargebacks911 he was sales director and head of partnerships at Radial, formerly eBay Enterprises. He also served as Director of Channel Partners for CardinalCommerce, a subsidiary of Visa, as well as holding leadership positions at Salesforce.com. 
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