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Welcome to the new PaymentsSource Morning Briefing, delivered daily. The information you need to start your day, including top headlines from PaymentsSource and around the Web:
Is Airbnb buying a payments company?: One of the sharing economy's more recognizable brands, Airbnb is trying to buy social payments company Tilt, according to TechCrunch. The technology website reports the purchase would give Airbnb access to Tilt's expertise in booking and collecting payments for social events such as trips or parties, an area where Tilt has found some success on college campuses, and faces challenges from other providers such as GoFundMe. The acquisition price is ranging from about $20 million to $50 million, a wide range though far below Tilt's valuation of nearly $400 million, according to TechCrunch. Airbnb, which allows people to rent rooms in their homes and usually relies on Braintree to handle transactions, has been trying to add financial functions. It hired cryptocurrency experts from ChangeCoin last year and has partnered with Amex.
The logos of Airbnb Inc. sit on banners displayed outside a media event in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Monday, July 27, 2015. Airbnb is hoping to spread its unique brand of hospitality throughout Africa. Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg
Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg
Brexit bill: Legislation authorizing the United Kingdom to exit the European Union could come as early as Thursday, reports The Guardian. The bill comes as the U.K.'s Supreme Court ruled that Parliament must act to trigger Article 50, the move that will start the process of separation, including negotiations with other European countries that could take years. The newspaper reports the bill will be "straightforward" and direct the country's exit from the EU, adding there is little chance Parliament will reverse the referendum from last summer to leave the EU. Financial technology companies and payment companies are concerned the departure will hurt London's status as a technology and financial capital, and the move could leave smaller alternative payment startups particularly vulnerable.
Healthy pet payments: Health careis an emerging category for payments technology, though the innovation is usually geared toward providers of medical care for humans. First American Payments Systems is targeting animal health care with its new deployment, a collaboration with VetOfficeSuite.com to delivery integrated payment technology within VetOfficeSuite's cloud-delivered software. VetOfficeSuite provides veterinary practice management services, and its integration with First American will provide automated payment options such as EMV, credit, debit, online payments and recurring transactions to amortize animal medical costs over time.
New carrot for corporate travel: Corporate travel is attracting new technology, ranging from Uber's geolocation to startupsthat look to deemphasize plastic cards. A new player, TripActions, came out of testing on Tuesday. It uses a rewards program to encourage staff to spend money more efficiently, rather than more rigid policies of traditional T&E expense. VentureBeat reports the company offers booking through a native app that links to sites such as Priceline and Booking.com, and enables companies to offer rewards for booking inexpensive trips. It charges a flat fee per trip rather than a more complex scale. TripActions also received a $14 million funding round led by Zeev Ventures with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Mobile payments are a great business opportunity for GCC banks The National UAE • M. R. Raghu The GCC has had a poor track record on the third generation of payment systems - credit and debit cards - but it now has an opportunity to rapidly adopt the fourth generation - mobile payments.
Paytm is accelerating its banking push Business Insider • B.I. Intelligence Indian mobile wallet firm Paytm plans to launch its banking operations within two months, according to Bloomberg.
'Lazy' passwords must give way to flexible biometrics With more than 3 billion credentials reported stolen worldwide in 2016, and 51 companies admitting a breach, we are clearly all in need of a resolution to fix the password problem.
What Target's mobile app may do differently Target Corp. has demonstrated payments innovation in many ways, including participating in an early pilot of mobile payments with Starbucks, and driving its payments volume to lower-cost debit rails via its Red Card.
The Cincinnati bank aims to grow in northeast Ohio with the acquisition of Westfield. The deal is expected to boost First Financial to a $20.6 billion institution.
House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill, R-Ark., declined to say whether he would pass the Senate's GENIUS Act without making his own changes, as President Trump has preferred.
Nissan Motor Acceptance Corp. has applied for an industrial loan company charter, joining General Motors and Ford in hoping for better prospects for approval under the Trump administration.
Barely two years after adopting a bank charter, NewtekOne in Florida plans to expand beyond its roots as an SBA 7(a) lender by growing its alternative loan program.
