Tag Archives: payments

Business & Property News, Finance and Banking, News

Tyl by NatWest announces new payments partnership with FSB

NatWest Group has today announced a new partnership with the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). This official payments partnership, builds on the support the NatWest Group has given to FSB over the years as the UK’s biggest bank for businesses.*

In 2020, NatWest Group established the SME Taskforce with FSB to help SMEs to respond to and navigate the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, working together with stakeholders from across the small business landscape, the two organisations worked closely together to support customers.

Just last year NatWest announced a £1million partnership with FSB to provide NatWest business customers with access to independent support and education to help with the cost-of-living crisis via webinars, and 1-2-1 phone support and webchat.

FSB members will see cost savings and other benefits by signing up with Tyl, subject to eligibility criteria as part of the partnership. Insight from Tyl by NatWest found that 8 out of 10 businesses could save on fees when switching from an existing card payment provider to Tyl by NatWest.†

For the smallest businesses, Tyl offers a simple fee structure based on one low rate for personal card transactions (where the card is issued in the UK or Europe) and one for all other transactions. For bigger businesses, Tyl has a range of different fees to fit the needs of the business.

In addition to the possible business savings, Tyl by NatWest could help FSB members with the day to day running of their business through features including:

  • Choice of card machines or a phone app for in-person sales
  • Take payments online or over the phone
  • Payment links and QR codes to send out so you get paid quickly
  • Simple bills and next business day settlement
  • Tyl Portal for access to constantly updated sales data
  • 7 day a week UK-based service and support line
  • Tyl is part of NatWest which brings trust, security and experience to ensure safe payments

Available now, FSB members could be up and running with Tyl in just 48 hours.

James Holian, Head of Business Banking at NatWest comments:

“FSB and NatWest share an ambition to provide strong support for the growth of entrepreneurship and small businesses in the UK, and we are excited and proud to partner with FSB in payments services for its members.”

Mike Elliff, CEO, Tyl by NatWest said:

“Small businesses are critical for our economy and our communities. At a time where the cost of trading is rising for small business owners, Tyl by NatWest is delighted to be able to partner with FSB to provide its members with a full range of cost-effective and reliable payment solutions, backed by great service.” 

Caroline Lavelle, Chief Commercial Officer, FSB, said:

“I’m delighted to form this partnership with Tyl by NatWest. We have a long-standing history of working with NatWest on various business initiatives and look forward to this next step in our relationship.

“As many of our members, and the wider UK small business community, continue to navigate the increasing cost of trading, an opportunity to make savings on payments, which is core to every business, will be well-received.”

News

Chargebee recognised as a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide SME-focused Subscription and Usage Management Applications 2022

Chargebee, a leading subscription and recurring revenue management platform, has announced it has been recognised as a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide SME-focused Subscription and Usage Management Applications 2022 Vendor Assessment (doc # US48786122, October 2022).

The IDC MarketScape report called out several strengths of Chargebee’s offerings, including innovation, value and integrations. Amid global market uncertainty, Chargebee expanded its product offerings over the last year to help businesses land, expand and maintain revenue. Leveraging the end-to-end platform, Chargebee’s customers gain visibility into customer insights and behaviours to maximise monetisation, a critical factor in today’s climate.

The recent acquisitions of Chargebee Receivables (previously Numberz) and Chargebee Retention (previously Brightback) enhanced the platform’s customer retention and payment failure prevention capabilities. Chargebee’s products enable intelligent and automated quote-to-cash processes with near-real-time financial data to inform critical business decisions. The IDC MarketScape notes, “these products help a Chargebee customer to manage both involuntary and voluntary churn with high automation.”

Chargebee also offers a robust real-time revenue recognition product with Chargebee RevRec, which helps companies automate ASC606/IFRS15 compliance workflows. Each Chargebee product provides flexible options for businesses launching new or expanded subscription offerings and critical business and customer data for companies of all sizes and stages employing the subscription model.

“As a customer-first business, our goal is to continuously innovate on behalf of the user. We know that small and medium-sized enterprises are in a particularly precarious situation amid global economic uncertainty, making healthy revenue recovery and customer churn management vital to their survival,” said Sanjay Manchanda, Chief Marketing Officer at Chargebee. “We are extremely pleased to be recognised as a leader in this space, a testament to our unwavering commitment to helping subscription-based businesses grow and succeed.”

While this report focuses on small and medium-sized enterprises, Chargebee serves customers of all sizes, including companies in the media and entertainment, automotive, food and beverage and D2C industries offering subscription services.

News, Retail

Launch of ‘one-stop-shop’ payments solution for forecourts will enable seamless customer experience for retailers

New P2PE enabled payment terminals for the forecourt industry from Suresite and TSG UK offers complete peace of mind 

Thanks to a strategic partnership between forecourt retail specialist Suresite Group and leading fuel and retail service provider TSG UK, a new point-to-point encryption (P2PE) payment solution has been developed specifically for the forecourt industry. 

The innovative solution – named Orion – offers a distinct point of difference that will pave the way for improved customer experience for retailers: it is a one-stop-shop. 
Crucially for retailers, this means that hardware, installation, software and customer support are all housed together from one provider. Addressing a longstanding issue among forecourt retailers, those adopting Suresite’s new solution will benefit from having just one point of contact no matter where problems in the payment chain may arise.  
Nick Horne, sales and commercial director at Suresite, explains: “Orion’s launch signifies the first time Suresite has been able to offer a much needed one-stop-shop for the fuel and convenience sector. Prior to this, retailers often had to ring around numerous providers in the event that a payment problem occurred, creating customer service issues.” 
The Orion device is backed by TSG’s experienced team of service engineers and field technicians, and the fact that Suresite answers 97% of customer service calls in 15 seconds from their UK call centre – ensuring that if problems arise, they are resolved swiftly. 
Steve Watts, sales director at TSG UK commented: “TSG UK is delighted to partner with Suresite to provide after sales support for this highly secure payment solution. Suresite’s vast experience in payment processing, backed up by unparalleled customer service, ensures total satisfaction for operators across the UK.” 
The new P2PE terminal, which accepts all major bank and fuel cards, is also PCI-approved, offering a safer choice for fuel forecourts. This ensures cardholder data is captured and encrypted, which both reassures consumers that their sensitive data is safe and secure, and significantly reduces the paperwork and potential costs associated with PCI compliance for forecourt retailers.  
“With 15 years’ experience in payments processing, we’re excited to be able to enhance our card payments offering with the Orion device – enabling retailers to future proof their business, and offering complete peace of mind in terms of payment security,” adds Nick. 
Alongside being highly secure, all of Suresite’s card payment terminals are also continually monitored to proactively check functionality, highlighting potential issues and triggering online resolution – sometimes before an issue has even been noticed at the site.  
News

InComm Payments selects BillingPlatform for its proven ability to handle complex billing scenarios and large volume of transactions

BillingPlatform, the enterprise monetisation platform for today’s innovative business models, today announced that InComm Payments, a leading payments technology company, has selected BillingPlatform as its enterprise billing solution. InComm Payments chose BillingPlatform for its flexible data model, modern and intuitive interface and the ability for non-technical users to configure the system to support the unique billing needs of InComm Payments’ diverse and growing business.

InComm Payments, which is headquartered in Atlanta and has a presence in more than 30 countries, delivers enhanced end-to-end payment platforms and emerging financial technology solutions that help businesses grow across a wide range of industries, including retail, healthcare, tolling and transit, incentives, mobile payments and financial services. The company has more than 525,000 points of distribution, 420 global patents and 1,000 global brand partners.

“As an industry leader and technology innovator, we have a clear vision for enabling the future of payments across a range of industries and use cases – a future that we realised also needed a more modern and automated billing system to power it after reviewing our accounting and business processes,” said Dean Thompson, Senior Director, Financial Information Systems at InComm Payments. “After researching multiple market options, BillingPlatform stood out as the ideal solution for InComm Payments based on its easy-to-use interface, scalability and ability to handle our complex pricing and billing requirements.”

With global customers serving multiple industries, including communications, transportation, media and entertainment, retail, finance and software, BillingPlatform is the only enterprise billing and monetisation solution on the market that enables enterprises to monetise any type of product offering, from simple subscriptions to sophisticated usage-based pricing models and everything in between. BillingPlatform provides full lifecycle support of the quote-to-cash process – all on a secure, next-generation cloud platform. The unparalleled flexibility of the platform puts enterprises in control of how they differentiate in the market, maximise profitability, reduce operational costs and improve the customer experience.

“Continuous innovation and creativity have been the hallmark of InComm’s success for the past three decades,” said Dennis Wall, CEO at BillingPlatform. “With our industry-leading, cloud-based platform approach, along with our ability to handle sophisticated usage-based data and high transaction volumes, we are excited to partner with InComm Payments on the next stage of their digital transformation.”

Finance and Banking, News

Businesses can and must adapt to changing customer payment needs

Written by Nathan Shinn, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, BillingPlatform

From the continuing fallout of the pandemic, through to Brexit and fears of a looming recession, mounting economic pressures are forcing many to reassess their spending priorities going forward.

We are already seeing consumer spending habits change because of these. Recently, it was revealed that over one million music streaming subscriptions have been cancelled in the UK, with 37% of customers citing saving money as the reason for cutting services, while an increasing number of people are turning to alternative payment methods, such as buy now pay later services, to purchase goods.

It is not just individual consumers who are feeling the strain, businesses are also under increased pressure to streamline spending to ease the financial impact of the past few, challenging years.

Whether selling to companies or consumers, providers will be nervous about these changing spending habits. However, while this concern is understandable, firms should also see it as a wake-up call to adapt and meet these new expectations. Providers need to rethink the purchasing options they are offering customers, as well as their business models, to meet evolving demands, or risk being left behind.

Some organisations have realised the need to adapt and are viewing the changing market as an opportunity to evolve the payment options they are offering in order to provide more choice for those looking to monitor their expenditure. This is because providing a wider variety of payment options means they can avoid losing customers for which previous billing options, such as fixed-fee subscriptions, may no longer be viable.

Fortunately for providers, the number of different billing and payment options has grown in recent years. One of the most prominent of these new business models that companies are deploying is a usage-based pricing (UBP) model that allows end-users to only pay for what they consume. According to an OpenView report from late 2021, a quarter of companies that currently use a UBP model say they introduced it within the previous 12 months, and 2021’s adoption of UBP exceeds that of both 2019 and 2020 combined.

It’s positive to see businesses actively implementing alternative billing methods to meet changing customer demands. However, while this may sound like a straightforward approach, putting the processes in place is a different, more complicated matter.

When businesses are no longer generating the exact same bill for every customer, they need to be able to capture various inbound data on user consumption and/or their subscriptions, apply it against contracted rating agreements, and create a unique, accurate bill quickly. For companies that have never used multiple billing options, this can be a challenge as they need to put in place new processes which, if not implemented correctly, can lead to inaccurate billing. This both impacts the customer’s time and, consequently, the reputation of the business.

The impact of not putting in the correct processes has been seen in the UK energy sector, where it was revealed that 40 per cent of the problems energy customers contact Citizens Advice about are related to inaccurate billing. This example demonstrates that offering more payment choices alone is not enough and needs to be supported by technology and solutions that enable companies to do this properly, so they don’t risk compromising on efficiency or customer experience.

Those looking to offer variable payment options and for technology to support this should ensure they implement automated solutions, such as data mediation (the ability to process raw-usage data quickly and accurately), into the billing process. Using platforms which can analyse a customer’s usage and payment options means firms can rest assured they are providing customers with accurate invoicing information at all times, removing the risk of human error and costly mistakes.

At the same time, firms should implement technologies which can adapt to customer demands. Prioritising billing solutions which have the added flexibility to react to market trends in real-time, launch new offerings and expand into different geographies, means that businesses are future-proofed to meet the changing needs of customers and can avoid needing to make dramatic changes as some have had to in current conditions.

Consumer needs are evolving and companies that want to retain and attract customers must be able to meet their demands, such as more payment options. However, change isn’t easy and implementing new processes can be both risky and daunting. This means that those who want to provide more billing options need to ensure their offering is backed up by technology which can manage these new processes and adapt to changing consumer needs. This will mean providers can give customers the variety they desire, maintain a high quality of service, and help them survive and even thrive during these tough times.

News

White paper addresses contact centre best practices in the wake of PCI DSS 4.0 rollout

PCI Pal has released a comprehensive white paper with Servadus, and Verizon Business Group, Professional Services, mapping the contact centre landscape over the past few years and taking a look ahead as the industry moves to adopt new payment security standards.

The white paper, Keep Calm and Simplify: Contact Centre Best Practices in the Era of PCI DSS 4.0, also looks at best practices and emerging technologies that will shape the payment security industry.

In 2018, PCI Pal and Verizon published their first joint piece, Keep Calm and Descope, looking at the benefits of descoping organisational infrastructure to minimise the requirements of PCI DSS. While the message within the original white paper still stands today, the impacts of a global pandemic, the ever-changing threat landscape, and the significant update to the standards themselves have prompted this further collaboration.

According to the white paper, the key challenges faced by contact centres heavily revolve around increased call traffic combined with the introduction of remote work during the pandemic, the rise in digital fraud and the tight labour market. In addition to the significant amends to the standards, the introduction of PCI DSS 4.0 significantly raises the payments security bar for all organisations accepting credit card payments.

“PCI DSS 4.0 is a much more robust set of standards compared to those we have seen in the past,” said Geoff Forsyth, CISO at PCI Pal. “This industry is constantly adapting to new challenges and increased threat levels, which is why there is a need for solutions that do the same. It’s been a pleasure working with our partner Verizon once again on a joint piece to explore the ever-evolving needs of the industry and what is necessary to keep consumers’ data and information secure.”

“These new standards coupled with dependable solutions, like the ones PCI Pal offers, will keep security tight without negatively impacting the customer experience,” said Ciske van Oosten, Head of Global Business Intelligence at Verizon.

To access the white paper, visit: https://www.pcipal.com/knowledge-centre/resource/keep-calm-and-simplify-contact-centre-best-practices-in-the-era-of-pci-dss-4-0/.

News

emerchantpay partners with APEXX Global to expand acquiring coverage

emerchantpay partners with APEXX Global to expand acquiring coverage

The partnership will expand APEXX’s current ecosystem by providing access to emerchantpay’s services

 emerchantpay, a leading payment service provider and acquirer, has formed a strategic partnership with APEXX Global, a multi-award-winning global payments platform, to expand its acquiring coverage and maximise its merchant growth globally.

The partnership will expand APEXX’s current ecosystem by providing access to emerchantpay’s in-house and global merchant acquiring services. Additionally, through the new alliance with emerchantpay, APEXX will leverage over 300 ways to pay domestically and cross-border. This means that APEXX can reach more merchants across a range of verticals and in key international markets.

Moreover, the partnership is underpinned by emerchantpay’s partner-centric approach through dedicated support, training, monitoring and optimising APEXX’s proposition. Ultimately, this relationship is poised to drive operational efficiencies, a higher volume of transactions and boost payment performance.

Joshua Hickling, Head of UK Partnerships at emerchantpay, says: “emerchantpay and APEXX have a shared goal to help merchants scale at speed in an ever-competitive payments landscape. The combined power of our platforms makes it easier for eCommerce merchants to optimise their payments performance and enter new markets so they achieve sustainable growth.”

Peter Keenan, CEO and Co-Founder at APEXX, said: “The global imperative for eCommerce adoption has created a greater need for tailored market-specific payment infrastructures. Our joint approach allows us to reach a greater number of merchants who can in turn benefit from a best-in-class payment proposition that facilitates growth at speed.”

Fintech, News

Paysend celebrates its five year anniversary

LONDON – 21 APRIL, 2022 – Launched in April 2017 with a vision to change the way that people manage their everyday finances, UK-based FinTech Paysend today celebrates its five year anniversary. Reaching this milestone, Paysend’s payments ecosystem is trusted by more than 6.5 million consumers for money transfers to over 150 countries globally as well as a growing network of small and medium-sized businesses who can receive digital payments from all major debit and credit cards in up to 38 currencies through Paysend’s business platform.

Paysend’s journey started with a team of experts from the banking and payments industries who became frustrated by the complex, slow-moving and limiting nature of the traditional payments ecosystem and wanted to create a more equitable and inclusive infrastructure that individuals and businesses could use for money transfer and payments.

Paysend was the first FinTech to introduce global card-to-card transfers and connect 12 billion cards issued by international payment systems such as Mastercard, Visa, China Union Pay and local cards schemes. From its beginnings in London, Paysend has driven expansion through Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia-Pacific, operating virtually and through offices in London, Miami and Singapore, and employing over 600 people.

In May 2021, Paysend secured US$125 million in a Series B investment round led by One Peak which valued the company at US$700+ million. This investment allowed Paysend to heavily invest in technology, innovation and people in order to expand its global payments network and increase financial inclusion at scale.

Abdul Abdulkerimov, Founder and Chairman at Paysend, said: “I’m so proud of what Paysend’s people and leadership team have achieved since our inception in 2017. We’ve hit some major milestones over the past five years through our Series B funding round, our customer growth trajectory and the third-party recognition that we’ve received from the likes of Deloitte and Sifted for our growth journey. But this is just the beginning of the story and there are exciting times ahead as we look to further expand our ecosystem of payments and partners, as well as growing our headcount and revenues, and set in motion our ambitious plans in the B2B and Enterprise spaces.”

FInance, News

MarketFinance rides embedded lending wave to boosted revenue and profitability

  • MarketFinance announces a year of profitability with revenues increasing 133% in 2021
  • Growth was boosted by product development and its role as delivery partners for the British Business Bank lending schemes, CBILS and RLS, alongside strategic partnerships with Barclays and other fintechs
  • MarketFinance’s fintech platform offers the fastest credit decisions in market, with 100% of applications processed in under 24 hours
  • To build on this growth, MarketFinance is developing lending APIs and investing significantly in embedded finance models, as it targets unicorn status

London, UK – 31st March 2022 – MarketFinance, the leading fintech payments and credit provider, today announced an increase of 133% in revenue, which saw the business hit profitability in 2021, as it invests further in its embedded finance products and digital lending APIs.

MarketFinance’s growth is driven by a surge in demand for working capital over the pandemic from SME borrowers, facilitated by the fintech’s successful roll out of the government-backed Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) loans and its accreditation as a delivery partner of the Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS). Both schemes saw the company handle over £2.1bn in digital applications with the fastest speed of decision in the market – currently 100% of applicants hear back in less than 24 hours. This growth has been achieved in tandem with the company’s moves to double down on existing strategic partnerships with Barclays Bank UK Plc and international cash management experts Ebury. MarketFinance is also launching new strategic partnerships with Azets, the largest Top 10 regional SME Accountancy and Business Advisory firm, and FTSE 250 enterprise merchants across various sectors.

The fintech saw a close to ten-fold increase in monthly borrowing applications since the pandemic and was able to provide businesses with the quickest ‘time to yes’ on the market via their digital application process. 2019’s £20m-30m volume in submitted monthly applications leapt to an average of £300m per month through 2021, reaching £725m in one month at its peak. Last year MarketFinance advanced over half a billion pounds across its product offering that spans invoice finance, business loans and flex loans, and approved credit limits worth £286m.

MarketFinance has been focused on providing frictionless finance to B2B businesses, in partnership with blue chips, start-ups and public bodies alike for over a decade. The company has benefited greatly from its strong track record of successfully embedding lending services on a cross-sector basis, where MarketFinance’s lending product is integrated within Barclays Online Banking, enabling hundreds of millions of pounds in funds loaned to businesses through the partnership since 2018.

Looking ahead, MarketFinance is building on this growth by developing its lending APIs and investing further in embedded finance models through integrations with software platforms, accountancy platforms, digital banks and B2B marketplaces, as it targets unicorn status. In Q2 2022, MarketFinance will debut its latest digital payments and credit offering for businesses and B2B marketplaces as the next step in its embedded finance strategy.

Anil Stocker, CEO at MarketFinance, commented: “In a market where profits often come second to growth, we are extremely proud to say we have reached this important profitability milestone. Our track record as a B2B credit provider over the last decade, together with our focus on refining our lending APIs, and working towards launching more payment and credit options for B2B marketplaces, stands us in good stead to build a much larger company. We’re still very early in our long-term journey.

“MarketFinance is focused on leading the B2B embedded finance market and transforming it in the same way that Klarna has transformed consumer payments and credit. We will reach our ambitious target through the continued development of pioneering new products, hiring great people to our mission, and maintaining partnerships, such as the one we hold with Barclays, to serve as many businesses with finance as we can.”

FInance, News

Moorwand launches suite of payments compliance services

London, UK, 17th February 2022 – Moorwand, a payments solutions provider, offering BIN sponsorship and issuing services, today announced the launch of its suite of payments compliance services. The suite aims to improve the financial crime systems and controls for Moorwand clients whilst reducing the administrative burden and improving operational efficiencies.

From anti-money laundering (AML) to Know Your Customer regulations financial service providers need to comply with a growing number of increasingly complex and stringent requirements around payments. In 2021 non-compliance with AML regulations grew to $5.35bn globally (Fenergo, 2022). This has prompted the systemic overhaul of AML/CFT regimes by policy makers. In the UK the HMT has called for evidence on the UK’s regime while the European Commission recently proposed a new Anti-Money Laundering Authority to address the scale of the issue.

This ever-changing compliance landscape is creating more complexity at a time of increased scrutiny for firms. In response, Moorwand’s suite of compliance services ensures financial service providers better understand the compliance environment they operate under and mitigate any risks well in advance. Services are focused on reducing risk for providers across money laundering, terrorism financing, fraud (including APP) and other financial crimes.

Moorwand’s suite of compliance services includes:

  • Policies and procedures drafting
  • End user onboarding services – either full end-to-end or bespoke
  • End user screening for PEPS, sanctions and adverse media
  • Dedicated onboarding resources for manual reviews
  • Transaction monitoring system for Digital Banking
  • Transaction monitoring assistance for issuing programmes
  • Training for Programme Manager staff

Firms can mix and scale the suite of services to meet their specific compliance needs and even have Moorwand manage the entire function on their behalf.

“The payments space has witnessed exponential growth in the last decade and there’s no signs of it slowing down. The strong growth has also meant unprecedented enforcement actions, particularly over the pandemic, as regulators seek to combat bad actors. The resulting complexity and scrutiny means the importance of compliance cannot be understated,” said Vicki Gladstone, CEO of Moorwand. “Our deep legal and payments expertise ensure our clients are compliant today, whilst we help them to anticipate the next wave of regulations they’ll need to comply with tomorrow. Moorwand’s suite of compliance services distils this expertise and know-how into products and tools that give our clients the very best risk management capabilities on the market.”

Moorwand’s compliance suite includes services that may only be used on a one-off basis, and others that may be added or changed based on the requirements of the financial service provider.

To learn more about the services offered by Moorwand, please visit this link: https://www.moorwand.com/solutions/payments-compliance-services/.