ANNOUNCEMENTSAccording to Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael C. O'Malley, a Cuyahoga County, Ohio, grand jury returned an indictment charging S and P Solutions and three of the company's executives on several charges related to owning and operating cryptocurrency kiosks from August 2002 to February 2023. The investigation was conducted by the United States Secret Service Cyber Fraud and Money Laundering Task Force with assistance from numerous other agencies. Sonny Meraban (owner of S and P Solutions), Reza Mehraban (Meraban's father and manager of S and P Solutions), William Suriano (attorney and manager of S and P Solutions), and S and P Solutions (d/b/a Bitcoin of America) stand charged with owning and operating cryptocurrency kiosks illegally across Northeast Ohio; operating the kiosks without a money transmission license; and falsely representing their capabilities to Ohio regulators to avoid detection. In addition, scammers and robocallers are alleged to have used BOA kiosks to facilitate transfers from victims across the United States, and BOA retained victims' fee money even after being notified the fees came from fraud victims' transfers.
Member Access Processing, a provider of the Visa DPS debit, credit, ATM, prepaid, and mobile processing platform to credit unions, said it opened a virtual office and consolidated its operations, both digitally and in the cloud, to leap ahead of competitors with an environmentally sustainable and digitally agile organizational system. This transition will reduce carbon emissions, minimize waste and conserve energy and other limited resources, the company stated, adding that its new virtual work environment will prevent 250 to 300 tons of CO emissions annually thanks to eliminated commutes and purged offices, which is equivalent to recycling 85 to 102 tons of waste.
North American Bancard Director of PCI Compliance Kera Logan was selected as part of the Electronic Transaction Association's 2023 Forty Under 40 class. The group of young innovative leaders and influencers in the payments industry will be recognized at a reception during Transact 2023 in Atlanta, April 24 through 26. "It's truly an honor to be recognized among this dynamic group of industry professionals whom I both respect and share a common passion in securing payments," Logan said. Facilitating merchant adherence to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, Logan works with NAB's product and engineering team to continually enhance NAB's systems, as well as the marketing team to develop and distribute card brand and regulatory compliance updates to merchants and stakeholders. In addition to Logan, CWA Merchant Services' Vice President Erick Weinstein also received the Forty Under 40 honor. CWA is an entity owned by NAB.
Snack POS, a processor-agnostic restaurant POS software, launched dual pricing to enable restaurants to clearly display card versus cash pricing on POS terminals at the time of sale. The feature addresses rising costs associated with credit card processing fees, which have become a significant expense for many restaurants, the company stated. With dual pricing, restaurants can offer a discounted price for customers who pay with cash or other non-credit card methods, while providing transparency at checkout. The new feature is part of Snack's restaurant POS software, which is designed to help restaurants streamline operations, improve efficiency, and provide a seamless experience for both customers and staff, Snack added.
VizyPay, a payment processing fintech with a mission to empower small-town businesses, ranked No. 85 on the 2023 Inc. 5000 Regionals: Midwest. The list includes the fastest-growing private companies in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. In this, VizyPay's second consecutive appearance on the list, the company ranked No. 2 in Iowa and No. 5 in financial services. About the honor, CEO Austin Mac Nab stated VizyPay is "proud to be a key pillar of the Midwest's flourishing economy. By eliminating unnecessary payment processing fees, small business owners across rural America can keep more of their hard-earned money and reinvest it back into the communities they serve."
RESEARCHA Juniper Research study found the value of payments via central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) will reach $213 billion annually by 2030, up from just $100 million in 2023. This growth of over 260,000 percent reflects the early stage of the sector, which is currently limited to pilot projects, researchers stated. Adoption will be driven by governments leveraging CBDCs to boost financial inclusion and increase control over how digital payments are made, researchers noted, adding that CBDCs will improve access to digital payments, particularly in emerging economies where mobile penetration is significantly higher than banking penetration. Since CBDCs are issued by central banks, they will be closely targeted to domestic payment challenges initially, with cross-border payments coming later.
Member Access Processing, a provider of the Visa DPS debit, credit, ATM, prepaid, and mobile processing platform to credit unions (CUs), released its 2022 MAP Happiness Report, a survey of CU leadership to assess their happiness with their card processing and payment solution providers. The report revealed nearly 65 percent of CUs stated their card processor is very important to their success. Less than 9 percent rated the processor relationship somewhat unimportant or not important. Happiness grew significantly from 2021. A majority of respondents stated they were very happy with their debit (69.5 percent) and credit (67.1 percent) programs—an 18-point increase for debit and nearly a 17-point increase for credit from 2021.
PARTNERSHIPSEVO Payments Inc., a provider of payment technology integrations and acquiring solutions, said it completed its integration with OVVI, an innovative developer of technology for the restaurant, hospitality and retail industries, to provide EVO's fast and secure payment acceptance solutions to OVVI customers. EVO will enable OVVI merchants to accept digital payment transactions in-store and online, utilizing their OVVI point-of-sale hardware. Customers in the restaurant, hospitality and retail industries will benefit from EVO's seamless integration and reporting solutions, which are EMV and PCI compliant and support all contact and contactless transactions, including Google Pay, Apple Pay, and Samsung Pay, EVO stated.
Meep, a provider of mobility-as–a-service (MaaS) in Southern Europe, inked a partnership with proximity verification provider LISNR to enable contactless authentications for mobility operators and riders. The relationship between LISNR's contactless proximity capabilities and Meep's mobile app and platform capabilities will enable both groups to attract bus, train and transit operators looking for a more robust customer experience, the partners noted, adding that LISNR's ultrasonic proximity verification solution can be leveraged for mobile payment and mobile ticketing scenarios, where the high cost of QR code scanners and NFC readers can become obsolete with one complete platform offered by Meep.
Nationwide Payment Systems, a GoDaddy premier partner and paytech solutions provider, launched a suite of services for banks and credit unions designed to boost non-interest revenue. The program enables financial service providers to win back market share from dominant processing brands and capture new revenue streams by offering merchant services to business customers, according to Allen Kopelman, CEO and co-founder of NPS. "As a premier partner of GoDaddy, we're promoting a bank partnership program that combines best-in-class GoDaddy offerings with our suite of merchant services," Kopelman said. "Our ability to assist with all types of merchant accounts, including special, hard-to-place categories, creates a one-stop-shop for merchants."
Pocketbook, a white-label embedded financial solution with branded banking solutions for small and midsize businesses (SMBs) and Bond, an embedded finance platform, devised a digital wallet solution designed to allow customers to accept payments directly from their own branded wallet. Pocketbook said this offers customers an alternative to expensive, slow, outdated legacy payment methods. The new digital wallet uses Bond's Accounts and ACH APIs to provide a low-risk, low-cost alternative to card payments that can eat up to 5 percent of a merchant's profits per transaction, the partners stated. Pocketbook's SMB clients will now be able to offer a seamless experience to their customers by embedding an end-to-end white-label digital wallet hosted on the client's domain or app, they added.
SaaS platform for online platform management Wix.com Ltd. extended its partnership with Stripe to bring Tap to Pay on iPhone to U.S.-based Wix merchants. This enables Wix merchants to accept secure, contactless payments directly from their iPhones without needing additional hardware, Wix stated. Using the Wix Owner App and a compatible iPhone, merchants can accept and process contactless payments from contactless credit or debit cards, Apple Pay, and other digital wallets. Tap to Pay on iPhone provides an accessible, easy way to streamline the payment transaction process and enable merchants to accept payments from anywhere, Wix noted, adding that this method is a trusted payment experience that provides Wix merchants with more flexibility to confidently grow their businesses, building upon Wix's robust product offerings that help users manage their business at every touchpoint.
ACQUISITIONWeavr confirmed that it acquired B2B open banking platform Comma Payments in a first-of-its kind deal within the world of embedded finance. Weavr further stated that with Comma, it has become the first embedded-finance provider to bring together banking-as-a-service and open banking into an optimized embeddable payment solution for B2B applications ranging from payroll to accounts payable and other forms of mass payments. The acquisition, which is largely equity-based, will see Weavr retain most of Comma's current workforce, including the company's CEO and founder, Tom Beckenham, and its chief technical officer, Gianluca Pengo, Weavr added.
APPOINTMENTSPayments acceptance solutions provider Ingenico appointed Laurent Blanchard as its president and chief executive officer, as well as a member of the company's supervisory board; he was also elected to the company's board of directors. Laurent has a 25-year track record in the technology sector, particularly in Europe and North America. Before joining Ingenico, Laurent served as the chief operating officer of Cegid, where he led the company's transformation to a cloud-based software business. Prior to that he held several senior positions at such major global companies as IBM, HP and Cisco. Throughout his career, Laurent has been an avid advocate for sustainability and technology as a catalyst for business innovation.
Fides Treasury Services Ltd., a provider of multibank connectivity, payments and transaction communications, hired Simone Gross to lead its product management team. Gross has 15 years of technical product experience working with multibanking, open banking and digital payment platforms, most recently as the product owner for API Ecosystems at UBS. Prior to joining UBS in 2018, she held product-oriented roles at Erste Group, a large financial services provider in Central and Eastern Europe.
Four veteran payments executives joined Get Beyond's board of directors. The appointees—Mia Shernoff, Robert J. Leonard, O.B. Rawls IV, and Robert Niehaus—will join Honora Moore, Get Beyond's chief legal officer and chief of staff; Mike Peters, CEO and president; and Bob Carr, founder and executive chairman, on the board. Shernoff is a marketing executive, serving as a fractional chief marketing officer to technology and financial institution clients. Leonard is an entrepreneur responsible for co-founding and growing three software companies, including iMobile3, Encore Development and Leonard Development Group, over the past 30+ years. Rawls is a senior level executive with success in fintech, payments and banking. He served as CEO of Global Payment Processing for Paysafe and CEO and president of iPayment. Niehaus is the chairman and founder of GCP Capital Partners LLC, an independent, privately held investment management firm that manages four U.S. private equity funds. 
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
