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Culture club
Crypto.com plans to debut a non-fungible token (NFT) platform this week that will connect Boy George, Lionel Richie, Snoop Dogg and other artists to investors.
The recording stars will collaborate with digital artists on the platform, according to
Following several high-profile art sales,
Going public
Business payments firm AvidXchange has reportedly hired Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Barclays to prepare an IPO that could be worth more as much as $10 billion.
The Charlotte, N.C.-based AvidXchange has seen demand for digital payments expand during the pandemic, reports
Branching out
Discover's Asia Pacific strategy picked up a new market through an agreement with Payments Network Malaysia Sdn Bhd (PayNet) to support Discover, Diners Club International and other Discover cardholders in Malaysia.
Discover has focused on building its base in the region, signing partnerships with Singapore, India, China, Hong Kong and Japan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Taiwan and New Zealand. It's Asian network reaches more than 570,000 point of sale terminals and 10,000 locations, with acceptance expanding 14% in 2020.
PayNet hopes the deal will expand payment options for visitors to Malaysia, as well as present opportunities for Malaysian merchants to sell outside the country.
Poor partners
Fintechs in Europe are suffering a number of challenges due to shortfalls at the fully regulated banks that manage some of the fintechs' activities such as account provision and access to payment rails.
A survey of 100 technology companies in the Netherlands, Lithuania, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.K. found a third of fintechs have faced regulatory scrutiny, product launch delays, unexpected expenses or service outages linked to the bank partners, or agency banks, reports
Most fintechs use traditional "high street" banks to serve in this role, but these banks often have outdated infrastructure that doesn't match well with the more tech-savvy fintechs, according to the survey. These banks also frequently use older batch processing for some functions and don't always have the right API for connections to fintechs and other third parties.
From the web
REUTERS | Wednesday, March 24, 2021
Financial technology group Feedzai said on Wednesday it had raised $200 million in a round led by investment company KKR valuing the startup at more than $1 billion.
TECHCRUNCH | Wednesday, March 24, 2021
Bankly, a Nigerian fintech startup digitizing cash for the unbanked, announced that it has closed a $2 million seed round. Founded by Tomilola Adejana and Fredrick Adams in 2018, Bankly is digitizing the informal thrift collections system known with different names such as esusu or ajo in Nigeria.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL | Wednesday, March 24, 2021
The investment round gave the company a $5.2 billion valuation and highlights venture capital’s growing willingness to jump back into the bitcoin frenzy.
More from PaymentsSource
Keeping up with new retail trends shouldn’t come at the cost of keeping personal information safe, says Bluefin's Ruston Miles.
Brim Financial contends there's an innovation gap for installment lending that favors larger lenders.
Dwolla executives have always been confident in its payments technology, but admittedly had a hard time explaining it to prospective clients — especially larger ones.
E-commerce, unemployment claims, stimulus payments and other needs brought many more people online over the course of 2020. Fraudsters were ready to pounce in all of these areas, gathering personal information and intercepting payments whenever possible.
Goldman Sachs Group didn’t use discriminatory practices when deciding whether to extend credit to prospective customers of its Apple Card, said the New York State Department of Financial Services.
There is a lot of talk about how banks could lose out as a result of the trend toward decentralized finance. But that is a misconception.
In-person branch use will continue, but retail banks should nonetheless double down on building intuitive, easy-to-use mobile experiences that drive customer satisfaction and brand loyalty
Large banks that counted on airline and hospitality points to drive loan growth in the credit card business are anticipating renewed demand once safety concerns subside. But they’re also cautioning that the recovery in travel spending is likely to be gradual.
Early in the pandemic, Michigan's Astera Credit Union realized that if it could not support touchless transactions, its members were likely to go elsewhere.
The notices went out to one cardholder after another, sparking complaints. Big banks were trimming credit limits by hundreds or thousands of dollars as the COVID-19 pandemic spread. None were saying how far it would go.
The concept of capturing recurring revenue through subscriptions always clicked for Suneera Madhani, founder of Fattmerchant, who took the novel approach of selling payment processing on a pay-as-you-go model when she launched her company seven years ago.
2021's Most Influential Women in Payments honorees demonstrate how a diverse background and a unique perspective can prove crucial in difficult times.
Subscriptions streaming services soared in popularity during 2020 as most consumers were either stuck in their homes, yet the market has changed with a greater focus on content and less on price sensitivity.
