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Remitting it Forward

Run on digital assets leads platforms to freeze user accounts, including withdrawals. Bankruptcy looms. 

The Big Chill in Crypto

Firm to combine asset, wealth and consumer banking into one unit

Goldman Sachs Reorganization 

Coinbase, Google Cloud, MinePlex among deals

Crypto Still Has Fans...And Deals

SaltPay develops a payments processing solutions for point of sale for merchants that accepts a variety of payment types.  SaltPay features include contactless payments, next-day settlements, installment payments for customers, and pay by link functionality.


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SaltPay Reviews 2024 | BankerAdvisor

SaltPay

Launched in July 2023, the Federal Reserve's FedNow service has been a game-changer in the U.S. payments landscape. With over 900 financial institutions onboarded, including major players like Chase and Wells Fargo, FedNow is reshaping the future of payments in the U.S. FedNow represents a significant shift from the traditional Automated Clearing House (ACH) system to real-time payments, ensuring transactions are processed instantly, 24/7/365. ACH, while effective, typically requires one to two business days for transaction completion. In contrast, FedNow processes payments in seconds, offering a faster and more efficient alternative that aligns the U.S. with global payment standards. 

One Year Since the FedNow Launch: What You Should Know

Mastercard reportedly plans to lay off 3% of its global workforce — about 1,000 people — as part of a reorganization it announced earlier this year. Most of the employees who will be affected by the move will be notified by the end of the current quarter, Reuters reported Friday (Aug. 16), citing a Mastercard spokesperson.  The company announced an executive restructuring on April 9. Mastercard said this realignment of its organizational structure centered on three areas — Core Payments, Commercial & New Payment Flows, and Services — and would help accelerate growth and deliver value to shareholders.

Mastercard to Cut 3% of Workforce Amid Previously Announced Reorganization

Finance and payments company Klarna says it has reduced hundreds of jobs and sees more reductions coming due to its implementation of AI. The Swedish company is using AI to handle customer queries with chatbots to drastically reduce the time taken to resolve issues. A buy-now-pay-later company, widely expected to seek a stock market listing next year, Klarna has been one of the early adopters of generative AI to cut costs and boost productivity.

Klarna uses AI to reduce employee numbers

Cryptocurrency prices fell on Friday as investors weighed the latest financial woes at Silvergate Capital and assessed what a potential bankruptcy at the crypto bank could mean for the broader crypto industry.The drop came late Thursday night, hours after several crypto companies said they’d stopped accepting or initiating payments to or from Silvergate – including Coinbase, Galaxy Digital, Circle, Paxos and Bitstamp. Silvergate, which has become the go-to bank for cryptocurrency businesses, gave notice Wednesday that it won’t meet an extended deadline to file its annual report and warned it may not be able to operate for another 12 months. 

Bitcoin, ether slide on Friday as investors weigh potential fallout from Silvergate woes

Purpose-driven payment platform, Sezzle, today announced its intent to list its shares of common stock for trading on the Nasdaq Global Market. The proposed listing on the Nasdaq Global Market is expected to be conducted pursuant to a registration statement on Form S-1 to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The Form S-1 is expected to become effective after the SEC completes its review process, subject to market and other conditions.

Sezzle to list on Nasdaq

Half of all fintech firms have put a stop to hiring staff in 2023 because of the challenging economic climate, according to a major new report. During the first half of 2022, over 4,000 fintech employees lost their roles across 45 companies, from mortgage lenders to firms processing digital payments, further highlighting the impact challenging financial times are having on a sector.  With a global recession looming, the development of financial software and the evolution of fintech innovations will have a larger impact on consumers than ever in 2023. 

Half of all fintech firms introduce hiring freeze

eToro recently completed a $250 million funding round at a valuation of $3.5 billion. Investors include ION Group, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Velvet Sea Ventures, and a number of existing investors. This funding stems from an Advance Investment Agreement (AIA) which eToro entered into in February 2021 as part of its proposed SPAC transaction.

eToro raises $250 million at $3.5 billion valuation

FedNow is the faster payments service for America, backed by the US Government and delivered by the Federal Reserve banks. There is a big difference between real-time payments, faster payments and immediate payments. It is semantics but the first, real-time payments, tend to describe real-time payments between banks and counterparties; the second, faster payments, tends to apply to retail and consumer payments; and the third, immediate payments, applies to all payments whether B2B, B2C or you and me. Real-time payments (RTP) from The Clearing House is not the same as FedNow. RTP connects banks; FedNow connects businesses, merchants and consumers. 

FedNow is launching in July. What is it and why is it important?

BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink’s annual letter to investors included criticism of the U.S. payments system. “In many emerging markets – like India, Brazil and parts of Africa – we are witnessing dramatic advances in digital payments, bringing down costs and advancing financial inclusion he said in the letter to investors. The, Fink stated “By contrast, many developed markets, including the U.S., are lagging behind in innovation, leaving the cost of payments much higher."

BlackRock CEO knocks US payments system

Remittance outfit Sendwave has launched a banking product for migrants in the United States. Sendwave, which is owned by London-based fintech Zepz, is offering select customers a FDIC-insured bank account with an accompanying debit card.


Sendwave launches bank account for migrants

Asset management giant Fidelity is close to submitting its own filing for a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund, joining a long list of issuers keen to be first to market with such a product. A source familiar with the firm’s plans says that it could submit its filing as soon as Tuesday, following the lead of asset management giant BlackRock. BlackRock’s June 15 filing has been followed by other asset managers looking to launch their own spot bitcoin funds including Invesco, WisdomTree and Bitwise.



Fidelity preparing to submit spot bitcoin ETF filing: Source

Banking giant JPMorgan Chase and 40 other US banks are testing the Federal Reserve’s new instant payment infrastructure called FedNow. According to a new Federal Reserve press release, 41 banks and 15 service providers are wrapping up FedNow test trials ahead of an official launch of the service, which is scheduled for late July. According to the Federal Reserve, the FedNow Service aims to enable businesses and individuals to send and receive instant payments anytime.

JPMorgan Chase and 40 Other US Banks Conducting FedNow Trial Runs Ahead of the Instant Payment Service’s Launch

Fidelity National Information Services will sell a 55% stake in Worldpay to the private equity firm GTCR for $11.7 billion, valuing the company at $17.5 billion. As part of the pact between the companies, Chicago-based GTCR will also provide $1.25 billion to the newly separate Worldpay business to allow it to pursue “inorganic growth opportunities,” according to the release. That most likely means GTCR would provide funding for acquisitions. The board of Jacksonville, Florida-based FIS has already unanimously approved the deal.

FIS to sell Worldpay stake to GTCR

The Bank of China, one of the largest state-owned banks in China, is currently conducting trials for a novel offline payment system that connects to SIM cards. This payment method is designed specifically for the digital yuan — China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC).  The bank plans to enable users to make phone payments by integrating its digital yuan app with specialized “super SIM cards” with near-field communication capabilities. Users can bring their mobile phones near the point of sale terminals for payment.

Bank of China trials offline payments for digital yuan via SIM cards

A TD Cowen analyst views MicroStrategy as “an attractive vehicle for investors looking to gain bitcoin exposure." TD Cowen analyst Lance Vitanza, who initiated coverage on the Michael Saylor-led firm last Wednesday with an outperform rating, praised the company for its “hybrid corporate strategy.” MicroStrategy is known for converting all of its earnings from its core software intelligence business into bitcoin. This approach represents a “paradigm shift,” he wrote in a note to investors.

Bullish MicroStrategy Analysts Raise Price Targets Ahead of Q2 Earnings

Visa has invested in Form3 as part of a wider commercial partnership with the cloud-based account-to-account payments platform. The size of the investment was not disclosed. Form3 will provide Visa’s clients with access to its payments platform. The partnership also aims to reduce high levels of fraud in real-time account-to-account payments, including by building on Form3’s single API connectivity.

Visa invests in A2A payments platform Form3

Visa and Mastercard are reportedly preparing to raise the credit card fees paid by merchants.
Those increases are scheduled to start in October and April, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Wednesday (Aug. 30), citing sources familiar with the matter and documents viewed by its reporters. According to the report, many of the increases are for online purchases. Merchants could pay an added $502 million per year due to the changes, CMSPI, a consulting company that works with merchants, told the WSJ.

CMSPI estimated that higher network fees will make up a little more than half of that revenue, with the remainder coming from interchange fees — also called “swipe fees” — which merchants pay when consumers use their credit cards.

Visa and Mastercard Interchange Fee Increases May Come in October, April 

Subprime consumers are falling behind on their credit-card bills. From Generation Z and millennials to Generation X and baby boomers, credit-card delinquency rates have been trending upwards for four generations of borrowers since January 2020, reaching a new high in August, according to new data from VantageScore. Borrowers with a VantageScore between 300 and 600 across these four cohorts experienced an 8.9% delinquency rate — of 30 to 59 days — in July 2023, up from 7.49% a year earlier. Credit-card delinquency rates at smaller banks hit a record high of 7.51% in the second quarter of 2023, up from 6.01% at the same time last year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank. 

Is there a subprime credit-card crisis on the horizon? 

The U.S. Federal Reserve launched FedNow in July, the first government real-time payment system in the U.S. The service allows banks and credit unions to transfer money for their customers instantly. Working alongside existing systems like Fedwire and FedACH, FedNow aims to improve the U.S.'s inter-bank and retail transaction infrastructure.

FedNow Has Launched As Blockchain Innovation Delivers Next-Gen Instant Payments

Shares in payment service provider Worldline slipped by more than half after the vendor warned of a deteriorating outlook for sales and the termination of a number of merchant relationships due to soaring cyber crime rates. The company says macroeconomic challenges are beginning to impact some of its key markets, particularly in Germany where the slowdown has disrupted consumer spending patterns.


Worldline shares halve on depressed outloook

Corporate spend management giant Brex has laid off 282 people (20% of its workforce) and revealed that its COO and CTO are leaving their roles.In a message to employees, shared on the company's blog, co-CEO Pedro Franceschi says the job cuts as part of a restructuring to become a "high-velocity company". Franceschi says the axe is being wielded following a hard look at the company's structure that will result in fewer management layers.

Brex axes 20% of staff

Temenos shares were down over 6% on Friday after closing over 28% lower on Thursday.
The Swiss software company said its board of directors “fundamentally refutes” a report by short-seller Hindenburg Research. Short-seller Hindenburg Research made headlines after accusing Indian conglomerate Adani of stock manipulation and accounting fraud in early 2023.

Hindenburg’s latest short target Temenos rejects allegations as share price tumbles

In the six months following its groundbreaking launch in July 2023, FedNow has emerged as a transformative force in real-time payments, marking a significant departure from the traditional Automated Clearing House (ACH) system.  This shift signifies a pivotal moment in banking innovation, offering instantaneous transaction processing that aligns with the modern financial transaction demands.

How FedNow is Shaping Payments Since its Groundbreaking Launch

The Federal Reserve is stressing the importance of fintechs and core providers for the future expansion of its new instant payments system FedNow. The Federal Reserve won’t provide fintechs with direct access to its new instant payments system FedNow, but it’s still courting their participation in the new real-time ecosystem. 

Fintechs can help the Fed see what’s on the horizon for the new faster payment system and allow the new real-time payments services to be easier to use, said Mollie Markham, a Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago industry specialist who works with nonbanks. Fintechs can also assist the Fed in providing services that make the most of FedNow’s data-rich capabilities, she said during a conference this month.

Fed courts nonbanks for FedNow growth

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau declared on Wednesday that customers of the burgeoning buy now, pay later industry have the same federal protections as users of credit cards. The agency unveiled what it called an “interpretive rule” that deemed BNPL lenders essentially the same as traditional credit card providers under the decades-old Truth in Lending Act. The BNPL market is dominated by fintech firms like Affirm, Klarna and PayPal.

CFPB says buy now, pay later firms must comply with U.S. credit card laws

Apple is discontinuing its buy-now-pay-later service, known as Apple Pay Later, barely a year after its initial launch in the U.S., and will rely on companies who already dominate the industry like Affirm and Klarna. It’s an acknowledgement from a company known for producing hit products that building a financial-services business from scratch, as Apple has been doing for several years, is difficult and highly competitive. Apple Pay Later launched with fanfare in March 2023 as a way for iPhone customers to split purchases of up to $1,000 into four equal payments with no fees or interest. The service was Apple’s answer to the growing popularity of buy-now-pay-later services like Klarna, Affirm, and others.

Apple kills off its buy-now-pay-later service barely a year after launch 

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