ANNOUNCEMENTSPaybotic, a provider of payment solutions in the cannabis industry and associated markets, established the Paybotic Women in Finance & Technology Scholarship for women pursuing a higher education. Paybotic will award three $2,500 scholarships to winners who will be selected in June 2022. Applications for scholarship are now open at bold.org/scholarships/paybotic-women-in-finance-and-technology-scholarship/.
Play2Pay Inc., a mobile payments platform that gamifies payments, selected Miami's Wynwood neighborhood as its flagship office location where it intends to hire for 25 positions in 2022. In the new 5,200 square foot office space employees will enjoy a hybrid schedule and versatile workspaces, the company stated. Amenities planned for employees include a gym; pool access; multiple rooftop areas for casual, recreational team building gatherings; a barbecue station; and a café.
Pushpay, a payments and engagement solutions provider for faith-based and nonprofit sectors, added new digital features to its giving solution, church management system and mobile applications to help churches increase involvement within their community. While the pandemic continues, in-person gatherings are slowly showing signs of returning to normal, with roughly 21 percent of adults attending weekly religious services in-person, according to the Associated Press. Among Pushpay's enhancements are app analytics, event creation in-app, donor development flexibility, draggable livestream link, annual recurring giving and Spanish translation.
SEON was named Cyber Security Solution of the Year at the FSTech Awards. Bringing together big names within the fintech and financial services sectors, the FSTech Awards is now in its 22nd year. SEON's category recognizes the best cyber security solution offered by a technology provider. The win demonstrates that SEON's innovative solution is able to constantly evolve to an emerging threat landscape by employing cutting edge technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, the company stated.
VizyPay, a payment processing company for small businesses, was named Best Small Business Payments Solution by the 2022 FinTech Breakthrough Awards, an annual awards program that recognizes technologies and companies driving innovation and exemplifying the best in fintech technology solutions. VizyPay stated it won thanks to its unique cash discount program (CDP), a flexible, transparent service that empowers small businesses to take control of their credit card processing, eliminate unpredictable fees and save money. For a low month-to-month subscription, CDP allows unlimited credit card transactions and offsets up to 100 percent of processing fees, the company added.
RESEARCHAccording to a new report from GoCardless and The Subscribed Institute at Zuora, a company's payment strategy plays a key role in its ability to reduce churn. How Customers Pay Impacts How Long they Stay reveals the annual customer churn rate for subscribers who pay via ACH debit is just 4 percent. In contrast, the rate for those who pay via credit cards is 14 percent, and 16 percent for those using digital wallets. The report also found that 20 to 40 percent of subscriber churn happens because of payment failure, and every quarter, subscription businesses lose between 1and 6 percent of their customers.
Mercator Advisory Group's 2022 North American PaymentsInsights, Canada: The Rise of Digital Payments Emerging from COVID, analyzes the impact of COVID within Canada on consumer payment preferences. The report revealed generational differences in the use of a range of payment forms including cash, checks, cards and digital payments. The report is based on the North American PaymentsInsights survey, administered in 2021 to a representative sample of 1,002 Canadian consumers, ages 18 years or older. "Payment technology is creating rapid shifts in consumer payment preferences, with COVID acting as a direct change agent, resulting in declines in use of paper payments via cash or checks," stated Amy Dunckelmann, vice president, research operations at Mercator.
A new survey of CEOs and board directors, released by The Conference Board's Committee for Economic Development, found that for more than two-thirds of respondents, Russia is the top priority they want the federal government to address. Russia concerns superseded inflation and strengthening the economy, which follow closely behind. The survey gauged the opinion of more than 80 CEOs and board directors, many of whom are at companies with more than $1 billion in revenue. Respondents were asked questions about timely issues including the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the Federal Reserve's stance on inflation. Roughly 67 percent of respondents agree with President Biden's handling of the situation in Ukraine; more than 80 percent of respondents believe the Fed needs to move faster on inflation, researchers stated.
Amid increased interest among payments industry professionals to explore enhanced security and authentication techniques, the U.S. Payments Forum released a resource that proposes a new solution concept for routing debit transactions that include EMV 3-D Secure (3DS). The EMV 3DS protocol specification facilitates cardholder authentication for card-not-present transactions, with the goal of reducing fraud. The white paper, Debit Routing and EMV® 3-D Secure, is available for download on the U.S. Payments Forum's website, www.uspaymentsforum.org.
PARTNERSHIPSHSBC and IBM will work together in a three-year collaboration designed to bolster HSBC's expertise in quantum computing and ensure its organizational readiness to take full advantage of the technology. As part of the agreement, the partners stated, the bank will join the IBM Quantum Accelerator program, giving it access to IBM's premium plan of quantum computing systems, including its recently announced 127-qubit processor, Eagle, as well as IBM's quantum expertise, to help validate and progress potential quantum use cases. HSBC said it will explore the use of quantum computing for pricing and portfolio optimization, to advance its net zero goals, and to mitigate risks.
Acquiring and payment services firm PXP Financial formed a partnership with Profitroom, a provider of online sales and marketing services for leisure hotels and resorts worldwide. Since its launch in 2008, Profitroom stated, it has cultivated expertise in exceptional customer service through long-standing relationships with hundreds of hotel industry experts and operators. The partnership with PXP has enabled Profitroom to implement a redirect checkout page on its booking engine, so when customers book hotels online via Profitroom, the payment will be captured through PXP's payments platform and go straight to the hotel's own account quickly and securely, the partners noted.
Commerce platform FreedomPay partnered with beauty retailer Sephora USA Inc. to integrate FreedomPay's data-driven commerce technology platform in Sephora's 500-plus stores across the Americas. The partnership allows for a safe and secure next-level mobile POS consumer experience for shoppers with FreedomPay, the partners stated, adding that the new touchless capable payment system enables Sephora clients to have complete control over their checkout experience, giving consumers the option to pay via contactless payment methods and digital wallets all on their own device.
ThetaRay, provider of AI-powered transaction monitoring technology, said its SaaS transaction anti-money laundering (AML) solution is now in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, an online store providing applications and services for use on Azure. ThetaRay SONAR availability on the the marketplace will enable easy global access to the solution using Microsoft Cloud, along with streamlined deployment and management, ThetaRay stated, adding that its AML solution enables payment fintechs and banks to easily launch payment transaction monitoring to secure global payments against money laundering activity hidden within transactions, while satisfying regulators and opening new revenue streams.
ACQUISITIONSAnalytics and advisory firm Escalent acquired Mercator Advisory Group, a research and advisory firm that serves the global payments industry. The addition of Mercator's seasoned, talented analysts to Javelin Strategy & Research augments an industry-leading thought leadership powerhouse to support clients' payments needs, stated Escalent, which acquired Javelin in December 2019. Joining Javelin's team, Mercator's analysts will continue to serve the firm's existing client roster. Mercator's clients will also benefit from Javelin's deep financial services industry coverage across fraud and security, digital banking, lending and wealth management, Escalent added.
TriCo Bancshares completed its previously announced merger with Valley Republic Bancorp as of March 25, 2022. The combined company, operating as TriCo Bancshares with its banking subsidiary, Tri Counties Bank, anticipates having total assets of approximately $10.1 billion as the result of the merger. Under terms of the agreement, each share of Valley common stock has been converted into the right to receive 0.95 shares of TriCo common stock, with cash to be paid in lieu of fractional shares. TriCo issued approximately 4.1 million shares of common stock in the merger.
APPOINTMENTSPPS, an Edenred company, appointed Andrea Keller as managing director. Keller is an experienced payment professional, having worked in the industry for more than 20 years at PPS's parent company, Edenred. He joins PPS from the position of managing director for Edenred Pay in Latin America, where he focused on payments and fintech solutions. A passionate executive who delivers business growth in dynamic and fast changing environments where technology and people are key to success, Keller brings extensive experience in payments and B2B markets, PPS stated.
Finaro, a cross-border payment provider and licensed bank, expanded its management team. Ruben Frimand Nielsen joined Finaro as vice president of sales and business development for Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland. Directly prior, Nielsen was a senior executive in the international payments division in Mastercard. Finaro appointed Clemens Leitner as vice president of sales and business development to lead Finaro's expansion in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Before joining Finaro, Clemens was a senior executive at Dimoco Carrier Billing.
Or Frankenstein Paran joined Finaro as vice president of sales and business development in the UK, having previously led strategic business development initiatives at Citi and d-local. Itamar Kummer signed on with Finaro as director of sales and business development in Israel. Kummer previously served as an executive at P3 Financial Group in Finland and AGT International in China. 
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