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title: PayPal + Pinterest?
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Plus, Bitcoin surges to a new high while Square considers bitcoin mining | NF #785 - 10.22.21

| The Latest News 🔎 Past, Present, and Future: The COVID Effect on Payments PayPal is in Late-Stage Talks to Acquire Pinterest Retail Groups Urge Credit Swipe Routing Changes Klarna to Offer Pay Now Option Ahead of Crackdown Stripe Strikes Again In Executing Its Strategy to Expand Beyond Online Payments Acceptance Fed Beige Book Finds Labor and Supply Shortages are Cramping the U.S. Economy Fiserv to Expand Digital Storefront Capabilities with Acquisition of BentoBox MiCamp Solutions Acquires Express Payment Solutions Daxko Receives Investment to Accelerate Innovation and Growth Can't Miss Content 📣 Does Your Smart Terminal Have What it Takes? → Now accepting submissions for Restaurant Smart Terminal Provider of the Year! 🎙️ Interview Series: Head of Carat and Global Digital Commerce at Fiserv → TSG sat down with Nandan to learn more about Carat and how they are helping enterprise merchants collaborate limitlessly. 🤑 Cash, Card, or Crypto? Most Small Businesses Aren't Ready to Join the Crypto Craze → New research (and infographic) from TSG analyzes small business acceptance, attitudes, and adoption of cryptocurrency. PayPal is in Late-Stage Talks to Acquire Pinterest CNBC / 10.20.21 PayPal is in late-stage talks to buy social media company Pinterest, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC. This person asked to remain anonymous because the deal discussions were confidential. Shares of Pinterest soared Wednesday after Bloomberg first reported that PayPal may acquire the social media company. The company’s stock was halted twice, before closing up more than 12%. PayPal, meanwhile, closed down nearly 5%. PayPal has discussed acquiring the company for a potential price of around $70 a share, which would value Pinterest at about $39 billion, according to Bloomberg.  Bitcoin Surges to New Record Above $66,000 CNN Business / 10.20.21 The bitcoin bull market is showing no signs of slowing down. Bitcoin, the world's most valuable cryptocurrency, hit a new all-time high of nearly $67,000 Wednesday, topping the previous record set in April. Bitcoin prices have surged 50% this month, from just under $44,000 at the end of September. The pop has been fueled by renewed hopes that regulators in the United States would not crack down on cryptocurrencies, support from big investors such as George Soros and the launch of the first exchange-traded fund tied to bitcoin futures. Klarna to Offer Pay Now Option Ahead of Crackdown BBC / 10.18.21 Buy now, pay later firm Klarna is planning changes ahead of an expected Treasury crackdown on the UK market. They include a "pay now" option, to let people pay for items in full, immediately. The boom in the use of buy now, pay later has fuelled fears that it encourages people into debt. Klarna's boss, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, told the BBC that retailers using its service see the average value of an order increase by 40%. The company said it wanted to "drive up standards" in the sector by improving the way it operates and communicates as well as introducing the choice of paying for items in full, immediately. Retail Groups Urge Credit Swipe Routing Changes PaymentsDive / 10.19.21 Over 10 years after Congress brought competition to how in-store debit card transactions are processed, the Federal Reserve is finally seeking to clarify that the same rules apply to online debit transactions as well. The move has been strongly backed by the two top government agencies in charge of fairness in open markets: The Department of Justice says competition over where online debit transactions are routed for processing “could have a very significant impact on the U.S. economy as a whole.” And the Federal Trade Commission says action is needed because card networks’ and big banks’ efforts to block online routing competition “eviscerate” merchants’ legal right under federal law to choose who processes the transactions. Plaid Pushes Into Payments Business After Scuttled Visa Deal WSJ / 10.21.21 May require account to read. Financial-technology startup Plaid Inc. is making a move into the payments business, less than a year after an antitrust lawsuit scuttled its high-price sale to Visa Inc. Plaid makes software that allows banks and other fintech companies to plug into their users’ financial accounts, with their permission, and access their financial data to look up account balances or authenticate personal financial details. Plaid unveiled a new program Thursday that will use the software to make it easier and cheaper for consumers and businesses to make digital payments funded by their bank accounts. Facebook's Digital Wallet Finally Launches...Without Diem Cryptocurrency The Verge / 10.19.21 Facebook is finally starting to roll out a “small pilot” of its Novi digital wallet in the US and Guatemala, more than two years after it was first announced. The pilot program will let users send and receive money “instantly, securely, and with no fees” using the Paxos stablecoin, in partnership with Coinbase (which will be serving as the custody partner that holds the actual funds for the pilot). According to Facebook’s David Marcus, the head of F2 (Facebook Financial), the pilot is meant to “test core feature functions, and operational capabilities in customer care and compliance,” in addition to trying to demonstrate a viable use of stablecoins for payments.       Stripe Strikes Again In Executing Its Strategy to Expand Beyond Online Payments Acceptance Digital Transactions / 10.20.21 Building on its strategy of expanding beyond payments acceptance, Stripe Inc. on Wednesday announced the acquisition of Recko Inc., a provider of payments-reconciliation software for Internet businesses. Terms were not disclosed. The deal follows the debut of new applications this year intended to carry out this strategy, such as Stripe Tax. The addition of Recko to Stripe’s growing portfolio of services will help Stripe merchants automate the payments-reconciliation process. It will also provide merchants with a way to track their financial health, according to Stripe. Jack Dorsey Says Square Might Get Into Bitcoin Mining Fast Company / 10.18.21 If you’re wondering why bitcoin surged over the weekend, you have one man and a tweet to thank—and no, it’s not Elon Musk. On Friday, Twitter founder and Square CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted that Square “is considering building a Bitcoin mining system” that would be open source and available to individuals and businesses.” In other words, it was one of the most prominent tech CEOs alluding to the fact that he and his company see a bright future in bitcoin.   Related: Square Loyalty and Square Marketing Launch for UK Businesses Sam Altman's Worldcoin Wants to Scan Eyeballs in Exchange for Crypto TechCrunch / 10.21.21 Worldcoin is perhaps one of the most audacious efforts to bribe the world to embrace their currency. The startup, founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Alex Blania, wants to put a crypto wallet (and some of their currency) onto every human’s smartphone, but in order to do so they have to build a way to determine whether someone is a unique human. Worldcoin is aiming to make their proof-of-personhood network in the least dystopian way possible. That being said, it still requires scanning a billion people’s eyeballs with a five-pound chromatic sphere called “The Orb”. Shopify-Spotify Collaboration: Artists Get New Way to Sell Merch Yahoo! Finance / 10.20.21 Shopify Inc.is teaming up with Spotify to allow artists to sell merchandise directly through their streaming profiles. The Canadian e-commerce giant announced on Wednesday that it had formed a strategic partnership with one of the world's largest audio streaming services that will allow artists to connect their Shopify stores to their Spotify accounts. That means listeners will be able to buy merchandise from musicians on the same Spotify page where they can find their latest music. Online Bank N26 Secures $900M Funding at $9B Valuation Verdict / 10.18.21 German online bank N26 has raised $900m in a Series E funding round at a valuation of more than $9bn. The round was co-led by tech investors Third Point Ventures and Coatue Management. Dragoneer Investment Group also joined the round along with N26’s existing investors. Goldman Sachs Bank Europe acted as the placement agent for the round. The latest funding has made N26, which was founded in 2013, one of the highest valued fintech firms in Europe.       Apple Takes Top Spot in Ranking of Best Global Brands CSA / 10.21.21 Tech dominates an annual ranking of the world’s top 100 brands. For the ninth consecutive year, Apple took the top spot in Interbrand’s Best Global Brands report, followed by Amazon and Microsoft. Rounding out the top five are Google and Samsung. The top three brands make up 62.3% of the total value of the top ten brands and 33% of the total table value. The average brand increased 10% in value in 2021, significantly larger than the 1.3% in 2020, which Interbrand attributed largely to the economic disruption caused by COVID-19. ETA Mini-Guide for Retail SMBs: Getting Started ETA / 10.21.21 The way consumers and merchants approach business has changed rapidly in the last 18 months. We used to discover new stores by word of mouth, by walking downtown, or by seeing a TV or website ad. Today, consumers are discovering new businesses in a myriad of ways, and it’s important to make sure that your SMBs are positioned to be discoverable on every platform consumers have access to — like Instagram, Facebook, or a marketplace (Amazon, Poshmark, or Etsy, to name a few). Other platforms where consumers might find new businesses include Yelp, Google Reviews, and, for restaurants, food ordering sites. U.S. Online Sales Will Top $200B This Holiday Season Retail Brew / 10.20.21 Things are going to get weird this holiday season. That’s not according to our own experiences at the dinner table, but Adobe’s new holiday shopping forecast. “It is probably one of the most unusual holiday seasons we’ve seen, especially after a year where consumers had no choice but to go online,” Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, told Retail Brew. To that end, US online holiday sales are set to surpass the $200 billion benchmark this year and reach a record high of $207 billion between November 1 to December 31, a 10% bump from 2020, per Adobe. Over 70% of Retail Sales Will Come From Stores in the Next Few Years Retail Dive / 10.19.21 Free and available vaccines in the U.S. have tamped down the worst consequences of the pandemic in many areas, but there remains an asterisk next to these improvements, as variants of the virus, including the delta strain, have introduced new levels of uncertainty. That includes retail and traffic to stores and malls. Still, these days more stores are opening than closing, and the pace of footfall is up. In July, shopping mall traffic exceeded pre-pandemic levels (up 1% compared to July 2019 at indoor malls and up 1.8% at outdoor malls), according to a recent report from Placer.ai.       Accenture: Ransomware Attack Breached Proprietary Data Bank Info Security / 10.18.21 The consultancy Accenture has confirmed that "irregular activity" in its IT networks last quarter, which it disclosed in August, also resulted in a breach of sensitive information. Dublin-based Accenture disclosed the data breach on Friday in its annual report for its fiscal year ending Aug. 31, which it filed as a form 10-K to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, as Bleeping Computer first reported. Coinbase Sees Single Regulator, New Framework for Crypto Supervision BankingDive / 10.18.21 Coinbase wants the U.S. to create a new regulator to oversee the digital asset market, the company said in a policy document published Thursday. Putting crypto oversight in the hands of one digitally native regulator would help the U.S. and the industry “avoid fragmented and inconsistent” supervision of the digital asset market’s “unique and concurrent innovations,” Coinbase said. As it stands now, the crypto sphere sees regulation from several bodies. New York Shuts Down Two Crypto Firms for Unlawful Activities and Investigates Three Others Yahoo! News / 10.18.21 New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday ordered the shutdown of two cryptocurrency lending platforms for "unlawful activities" and directed the investigation of three others. All the firms' names were redacted in the two letters published in conjunction with the press release. However, initial reporting from The Block showed the cease-and-desist letter was marked with the title "Nexo Letter," while a request for information was tagged "Celsius Letter" upon initial publication. The supposed slip-ups have been rectified and the letters are now labeled with generic names.       Fed Beige Book Finds Labor and Supply Shortages are Cramping the U.S. Economy MarketWatch / 10.20.21 The U.S. economy is still growing at a solid pace, a Federal Reserve report said Wednesday, but labor shortages and supply-chain bottlenecks are restraining growth and triggering higher inflation. The Fed’s Beige Book, a period evaluation of the economy, shed more light on the unprecedented challenges facing the U.S. as it recovers from the pandemic. What’s hurting the economy the most right now are a lack of workers and the inability of companies to obtain badly needed parts and supplies.  Jobless Claims Fall Again as Enhanced Pandemic Benefits Fade Away CNBC / 10.21.21 Weekly jobless claims hit another pandemic-era low last week as the elimination of enhanced benefits sent fewer people to the unemployment line. First-time filings for unemployment insurance totaled 290,000 for the week ended Oct. 16, down 6,000 from the previous period, the Labor Department reported Thursday. This was the second week in a row that claims ran below 300,000.       Fiserv to Expand Digital Storefront Capabilities with Acquisition of BentoBox Fiserv / 10.18.21 Fiserv, Inc., a leading global provider of payments and financial services technology solutions, announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire BentoBox, a digital marketing and commerce platform provider that delivers a frictionless diner experience dedicated to accelerating growth and helping restaurants seamlessly connect with their guests. This transaction expands the company’s Clover® dining solutions and industry-leading commerce and business management capabilities, which enable nearly 200,000 restaurants of all sizes to deliver unique and differentiating diner experiences, from quick and casual to full service.   Related: Zelle® and Fiserv Launch Program to Bring Real-Time P2P Payments to Minority Depository Institutions MiCamp Solutions Acquires Express Payment Solutions MiCamp / 10.18.21 MiCamp Solutions is pleased to announce that is has acquired Express Payment Solutions, a California-based Fiserv ISO. The acquisition was completed in conjunction with MiCamp’s Joint Venture partner, Twenty20 Payments. Express Payment Solutions is a premier provider of payment solutions and processing services in the United States. The strategic acquisition provides MiCamp Solutions a greater market share of the California market. The mutually beneficial partnership will realize synergies between the companies moving forward. Paysafe Relaunches US Partnership Programs to Deliver Comprehensive Payment Solutions Paysafe / 10.19.21 Paysafe announced the relaunch of its U.S. partnership programs, which provide independent agents, independent sales organizations (ISOs), independent software vendors (ISVs) and financial institutions with an array of tailored solutions to drive continuous growth. The highly flexible programs, which deliver leading payments technologies, simplified onboarding options and dedicated merchant support, leverage Paysafe’s more than 20 years of experience developing customizable payment programs that address the needs of independent resellers and software developers as well as their respective customer bases. Discover Financial Services Reports Third Quarter 2021 Net Income of $1.1 Billion or $3.54 Per Diluted Share Discover / 10.20.21 Discover Financial Services reported net income of $1.1 billion or $3.54 per diluted share for the third quarter of 2021, as compared to a net income of $771 million or $2.45 per diluted share for the third quarter of 2020. “Our results this quarter reflected the strengths of our integrated digital banking and payments model, which continues to be a source of significant competitive advantage” said Roger Hochschild, CEO and President of Discover. “Even in an environment of heightened competition, our attractive value proposition drove strong new account growth, which contributed to our return to year-over-year loan growth in the quarter. Mastercard Advances B2B Payments With New Supply Chain Finance Offering, Empowering More Businesses to Secure Working Capital They Need To Grow Mastercard / 10.21.21 Mastercard announced a new supply chain finance capability within Track Business Payment Service (Track BPS) – designed to increase access to working capital while lowering costs, reducing complexity and risk, and accelerating automation when businesses pay and get paid. Launched in partnership with Demica, a leading global provider of supply chain finance technology, this new offering empowers Mastercard partners to provide their business customers with access to affordable working capital. American Express and Goldman Sachs to Provide Integrated Digital Payments Solution for Corporate Clients American Express / 10.20.21 American Express and Goldman Sachs Transaction Banking announced a collaboration to provide large corporate clients with a cloud-based payments solution that will seamlessly support multiple payment options and offer data and analytics in one integrated platform. “A major pain point for our large commercial card clients is managing multiple platforms and myriad time-consuming, costly and complex processes to make, track, and reconcile thousands of payment transactions every day,” said Dean Henry, Executive Vice President of Global Commercial Services at American Express. Daxko Receives Investment to Accelerate Innovation and Growth GI Partners / 10.19.21 Daxko, the health, fitness, and wellness industry's leading software and integrated payments provider, announced a recapitalization of the company by Genstar Capital and existing investor GI Partners, both of whom have deep investment and operational expertise in the software and payments sectors. The investment supports Daxko’s accelerated innovation in product development, customer support, sales and marketing, and strategic acquisitions. Barclaycard Payments Extends its Relationship with SAP to Widen Payment Acceptance Capabilities and Enhance Procure-to-Pay Processes Barclaycard / 10.19.21 Starting this week, any business signed up to SAP Upscale Commerce will be able to access Barclaycard Smartpay and take advantage of benefits including a frictionless customer experience and bolstered fraud defenses. SAP Upscale Commerce is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) commerce solution popular with mid-size, direct-to-consumer businesses. The platform is designed for mobile, providing users with a seamless experience across a wide range of devices. ACH Network Volume Up 7.7% in Third Quarter; Strong B2B Growth Continues as Healthcare Claims Pass 100M Mark Nacha / 10.19.21 With business-to-business (B2B) showing particularly strong growth, and healthcare claim payments setting a record, the modern ACH Network recorded a 7.7% increase in payment volume during the third quarter of 2021. There were 7.3 billion payments on the ACH Network in the third quarter, 520 million more than a year earlier. The value of those payments, $18.1 trillion, reflects a rise of 13.8%. As it has throughout the pandemic, B2B volume continued its strong growth. There were 1.4 billion B2B payments, an increase of 18.7% from the same time in 2020. Givex Launches GivexPay, an Integrated Payment Solution for Merchants, Powered by Adyen for Platforms Adyen / 10.20.21 Givex, the global IT platform focused on providing merchants with useful customer insights, announced the launch of GivexPay powered by Adyen, the global payments platform of choice for many of the world’s leading companies. Givex provides merchants with gift card programs, customized loyalty programs, kitchen display systems, inventory controls, kiosks, handheld ordering tablets, online ordering apps, as well as an omnichannel POS system that, with today’s announcement, includes GivexPay, an integrated payment processing solution powered by Adyen for Platforms. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Selects Worldpay from FIS as a Preferred Payments Partner FIS / 10.20.21 As vacation travel picks back up across the globe, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. is enhancing the payments experience for its customers by choosing Worldpay from FIS® as one of its preferred payments processing providers globally. Norwegian is one of the world’s largest cruise companies, operating the award-winning Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises brands.   Related: Worldpay from FIS Named Crypto AM’s Crypto Payment Service Provider of the Year Chargebee and Worldline Partner on Subscription and Payment Management Integration to Help Merchants Improve Customer Engagement and Retention Worldline / 10.19.21 Worldline, the European leader in the payments and transactional services industry and #4 player worldwide, and Chargebee, the leading subscription billing and revenue management platform, today announced their collaboration to provide an end-to-end payment, subscription and revenue operations solution for merchants operating in a subscription model. With a single, integrated solution, Worldline and Chargebee help merchants improve and expand business operations, efficiently and at scale. SHAZAM, Inc. Taps Arroweye Solutions for Market-Leading Card Production Services Businesswire / 10.19.21 “We selected Arroweye for our program to streamline the card personalization, production and fulfillment needs of our clients. Arroweye’s flexible card fulfilment capabilities coupled with their ability to handle the card volumes our clients require while keeping up with increasing demand were key to our partnership,” said Manish Nathwani, senior vice president, product development at SHAZAM. “Arroweye has a reputation for producing high-quality products on short turnaround, providing superior customer service and helping businesses deepen cardholder relationships.” Worldnet is First to Certify Ingenico's Self Series PR Newswire / 10.18.21 Worldnet Payments, a trusted provider of omnichannel payment solutions for independent software vendors (ISVs) in self-service retail, announced that it became the first integrated payments platform to complete a Level III EMV and Contactless certification of the Self Series from Ingenico, a Worldline brand. The demand for unattended and contactless payment solutions has taken off with 80% of in-store shoppers open to nontraditional checkout and claiming they prefer self-service if available. CommBank Rolls Out New POS Terminals; Square-alike Card Reader Next Up Finextra / 10.20.21 Commonwealth Bank of Australia is replacing its suite of Android-based Albert POS terminals with a new 'Smart' platform developed in concert with Verifone. The Smart terminal takes over from the six-year old Albert brand with a host of modern features designed for the digital age. Using Smart, businesses will be able to customise their payment experience with an ‘App Marketplace’ featuring tailored apps in sectors such as health, hospitality and not-for-profit.  Copyright © 2021 The Strawhecker Group, All rights reserved. The Strawhecker Group, 11605 Miracle Hills Dr. Suite 302, Omaha, NE 68154, United States, 402-964-2617 Unsubscribe Manage preferences View in browser |
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