Acquirers

Square has begun holding onto a portion of some sellers’ payments, demonstrating how liquidity shortages challenge the recovery for both businesses and the companies that process their payments.

Backed by its consumer survey acknowledging a significant shift in payment preferences to contactless options since the COVID-19 pandemic, Fattmerchant is launching software that can quickly add contactless payment acceptance for its merchants.

Square has added fuel to its growing Cash transfer service by agreeing to buy Verse, a Spanish P2P app.

Alfie’s Beer Bus found a niche as an offbeat character at events in the U.K. — like an ice cream truck, only with alcohol. Then the coronavirus came.

Cross-border payment fintech dLocal is partnering with Canadian e-commerce company Shopify to enable small businesses to offer local payment methods in more than 19 currencies in emerging markets.

When Fiserv purchased First Data in 2019, it was part of an industrywide push to combine bank and merchant technology under one roof. A year later, a key piece of First Data’s technology — and its top executive — have become Fiserv’s path through the coronavirus crisis.

When the coronavirus pandemic began, Square pushed hard to get a bigger share of merchants' online sales and consumers' stimulus spending — and even received its long-desired bank license — but found that this wasn't enough to offset the effects of the crisis.

Worldline has acquired a 53% stake in Czech Republic-based GoPay, furthering an Eastern European expansion effort with an option to acquire the remaining shares in 2022.

Merchant acquiring is a very face-to-face, sales-oriented business. And that culture has to change before any acquirers can convince their clients that they know how to adapt to the coronavirus pandemic.

Suneera Madhani, CEO of the digital acquirer Fattmerchant, tells PaymentsSource how the coronavirus pandemic has affected how her employees go to market with new payments technology — and how making the shift to digital helps both the acquirer and its clients.