Last week, today July 14: News in payments and fintech

Our bi-weekly news roundup collects some of the headlines in payments and fintech to watch, giving leaders across industries (or fintech enthusiasts) a quick glance at some of the news in the space. In Flywire’s 10+ years in delivering the most complex, high value payments, we’ve had a unique opportunity to work with many different organizations in the fintech and payments ecosystem. We’ve seen changes in how clients get paid, how their customers want to pay and how central the payments experience has become – not just across the industries we focus on, but every industry.

Here are some of the payments and fintech headlines from June 29-July 13.

Headlines

Medical Debt is Being Wiped Off Credit Reports. What That Means For You - The Wall Street Journal
Medical debt that went into collection but has since been paid is now wiped from consumer’s credit reports, and starting in 2023, unpaid medical debts up to $500 won’t appear on them. Combined, the changes will remove 70% of $88 billion in medical debt on the credit reports of 43 million Americans, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Toast Acquires Sling to Expand its Team Management Suite - Toast newsroom
In more proof of verticalized software driving value in payments platforms, Toast announced it had acquired Sling, which will bring scheduling management functionality to the platform.

State of Play: Money 20/20 Europe - FinTech Futures
Fintech analyst Philip Benton reports on some of the big takeaways from the Money20/20 Europe conference, with key topics including open banking, embedded finance and fintech regulation.

Challenges of digitization across incumbent FIs: 5 questions with the Global Head of Sales at Citi, Steve Elms - Tearsheet.com
Sara Khairi explores how Citi is diversifying digital solutions, looking at its work in online and mobile banking, file exchange, messaging processes, and API solutions for cash management, and more.

The U.S. Dollar’s Global Roles: Revisiting Where Things Stand- Liberty Street Economics – Federal Reserve Bank of New York
The authors defend a view that much evidence points to the U.S. dollar maintaining its importance internationally.

From Flywire

Flywire Announces Acquisition of Cohort Go to Accelerate Growth with International Agents
The acquisition will build on our existing education business to accelerate the growth of our agent focus and team, deepen the commitment to product and payment innovation, and further invest in Asia-Pacific (APAC), a key geographic focus. Additionally, with partner relationships in almost 40 geographies, Cohort Go’s global footprint and penetration in APAC and Latin America also present new growth and expansion opportunities for Flywire.

4 things universities should consider to better serve international students
International students have very different payment needs depending on where they’re making payments. But there’s four themes that can help universities develop more efficient payment processes and meet the unique needs of their students.

6 key metrics to track in healthcare revenue cycle management: A checklist
How can providers decide where to focus their efforts and effect change in modernizing revenue cycle management processes, and how can they measure the impact? Here’s some guidance on how to approach improvements in revenue cycle management processes and the difference those efforts can make.

Stat of the week

35% to 57% - growth in the share of adults from developing economies making digital payments, comparing 2014 to 2021 - World Bank Global Findex 2021

Report of the week

Options for access to and interoperability of CBDCs for cross-border payments
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), in a report, asked countries to cooperate at early stages of CBDC design, according to coverage in CoinDesk, to make cross-border payments easier.

Conversation starter

Google Countersues Match for Breach of Contract Over App Store Payments - The Wall Street Journal
In something to watch, Alphabet’s Google has countersued Match Group Inc. in a back and forth over payments-related matters. Match sued Google in May, disputing requirements to use Google’s billing system. TechCrunch reports that the Match Group, along with other large publishers, “largely want to offer their own in-app payment systems instead of being forced to use Google’s own payments infrastructure and want to avoid the commissions that come with having their apps distributed through the Google Play store and App Store.”