Dog Days news edition

As we approach the end of the dog days of summer, we’ve got a roundup highlighting the latest global payments news. We start with a look at the big dogs Amazon and Affirm tying up in a blockbuster buy now pay later deal. Korea penalizes Apple and Google app stores over payments, China makes fintech and e-commerce life more difficult, a study shows 94% of European checkouts have multiple errors, competition heats up for SMB payment clients, and much more payments news you can use. Sit Fido, stay.

Amazon & Affirm partner on BNPL

Affirm shares soar on use of Amazon partnership for buy now, pay later
Affirm’s buy now, pay later checkout option will be available to certain Amazon customers in the U.S. starting Friday with a broader rollout in the coming months. The partnership will let Amazon customers split purchases of $50 or more into smaller, monthly installments. Friday’s partnership is the latest sign of the booming installment lending space as younger consumers move towards these alternative lines of credit. Read more…  

S Korea strikes Google-Apple app commissions

South Korea passes bill limiting Apple and Google control over app store payments
The South Korean parliament approved a bill on Tuesday that will ban major app store operators – like Google and Apple – from requiring developers to only use their payment systems to process the sale of digital products and services. Those policies usually require developers to pay Google and Apple a commission as high as 30% in every transaction. It means developers will be able to avoid paying commission to Google and Apple by directing users to pay via alternate platforms. Read more…

China crushes fintech companies

China crushed Jack Ma, and his fintech rivals are next
Ant has lost at least $70 billion in value since its scuttled IPO, and companies from Tencent to JD.com are under pressure, too. The winners? The country’s state-backed banks. Inside Ant, the financial-technology giant Ma spun out of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, the real costs are still being tallied. Followers of “Daddy Ma,” China’s answer to Jeff Bezos, have been brought to heel by higher powers: China’s president, Xi Jinping, and his right-hand man on the economy, Liu He. Read more…

EU payment errors

94% of EU checkouts have multiple errors
The vast majority (94%) of the most popular e-commerce websites in Europe have five or more errors on their checkout pages. Meanwhile, 21% of European consumers abandon a purchase if the checkout takes longer than one minute. And 15% of consumers in Europe leave their online shopping cart when their desired payment method isn’t available. So, there’s still lots to do for e-commerce businesses in Europe, even for the major ones. Read more…

McKinsey  Middle East payments trends

McKinsey: The future of payments in the Middle East
The payments landscape in the Middle East is heading for an inflection point. Despite the region’s digitally savvy population—with smartphone penetration reaching 80 to 90% in leading markets—the region has remained heavily dependent on cash. Only about a third of retail transactions are conducted electronically, thanks to factors such as underdeveloped digital-payments infrastructure and services, underbanked consumer and merchant segments, and a cultural bias toward cash. Read more…

TSYS payments outage hits customers

Who’s your backup payment processor in an outage?
Four days ago, global payment processor TSYS platform went offline, and merchants and ISOs are still waiting for an explanation. Neither the TSYS website nor the owner Global Payments have acknowledged the outage. In addition, neither company has yet issued a statement regarding the outage, leaving many ISOs and some merchants in the dark. That lack of response to critical business payments infrastructure in the face of nationwide system outage is unacceptable today. Read more…

US Bank targets SMB growth

Competition for SMB payments clients heats up acquisitions
While some payments players are building up services for the small and mid-sized business (SMB) segment, others are paring those operations. The strategy chosen may depend on whether they’re prepared to take on mounting competition in the arena. This month, Western Union sold its cross-border money transfer unit that catered to SMBs for about $910 million to a U.S. private equity group. Meanwhile, US Bank is buying up businesses, including Bento Technologies this month, to target SMB payments needs. Read more…

Klarna losses mount with growth

Growth drive pushes Klarna to wider loss
Klarna’s shopping volumes in the US expanded by 311% year on year. The buy-now-pay-later giant saw its losses increase more than tenfold in the first half of 2021 compared to the same period last year, rising to £81m ($111.4 million) up from just under £7.5m ($10.3 million) in 2020. Klarna has been loss-making since 2019 largely thanks to widening credit losses and its rapid expansion across namely the US but also New Zealand, France, Spain, and even more recently Poland. Read more…

VPay study shows slow payment processes

VPay survey reveals that vast majority of property, casualty insurers still process 50% of claim payments via paper
Key findings reveal that nearly all P&C insurers have adopted some form of digital payment, although 50% of B2C and B2B payments are still processed on paper. The drivers for investing in these technologies is mixed between the desire to streamline operations and meet customer demands. Notably, nearly half of respondents believe that further investments in digital technologies (up from 34% the previous year), along with strategies that address personalization of customer claim experiences, are critical priorities for the coming year. Read more…

InComm & Doxo are you on payments

InComm Payments, Doxo to offer cash bill payments in stores
Payments tech company InComm Payments, partnered with Doxo, a provider of bill payment services, to allow customers to pay their household bills with cash at 60,000 retail locations across the US. The partnership will enable Doxo account holders to use InComm’s retailer network relationships to pay their insurance, credit card, utility, internet, and other bills at chains that include Dollar General, Family Dollar, and select 7-Eleven stores. Read more…

Enjoy the last few dog days of summer and the long weekend ahead.