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.
Headlines
Despite Economic Pressures, Middle Market CFOs See 2023 as a Year of Opportunity and Resilience – BDO Survey - Businesswire
78% of the 625 CFOs polled in the 2023 BDO CFO Outlook Survey said they will maintain or increase their digital transformation efforts this year, and 81% plan to do the same with workplace technologies. The firm advised CFOs focused on the bottom line to “think cost optimization, not cost cutting.”
Banks Plan Payment Wallet to Compete With PayPal, Apple Pay - The Wall Street Journal Wells Fargo, Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase are among those that plan to team up to launch a digital wallet, with plans to roll out the offering in the second half of 2023.
Payment Trends to Watch in 2023 - Information Week
Security will drive payment infrastructure investments, open banking could have its first major use case with so-called Variable Recurring Payments, a way to collect recurring payments via a different route than debit or ACH, and real-time payments move forward.
Marqeta buys fintech Power Finance in $275M all-cash deal, its first acquisition - TechCrunch
Power Finance’s credit card program management services platform aims to help organizations build customized credit card programs, targeted promotions and personalized rewards within existing mobile and web applications. American Banker points to the deal’s significance for embedded finance and banking-as-a-service.
Small Banks Urge CFPB to Phase in Open Banking Tech Requirements- Bloomberg Law
Credit unions and community banks are urging the regulator to consider how implementation of a rule eliminating “screen scraping” will affect them, namely the expense associated with moving to the proposed system whereby banks set up APIs and data portals.
2023 is Bringing Change for Global Payments – But There Are Opportunities Ahead -Forbes
Daniel Webber of FXC Intelligence shares what he believes will be the biggest factors shaping global payments in 2023 – from shifting supply chains and industry consolidation to crypto and super apps.
How to Implement Effective and Innovative Cross-Border Payment Strategies-Payments Journal
As the economy becomes ever more global, the volume of cross-border payments grows too. For many businesses, this creates increased cost, complexity and inefficiency in their finance processes. In this article, Payments Journal lays out a set of strategies to streamline things.
Visa delays await Chinese students returning to Australia after sudden ban on online learning - The Guardian
The Chinese government has effectively banned its citizens from studying at international universities online, saying it won’t recognize online degrees from foreign universities. This means students must be on campus for the first semester of 2023, which begins in weeks in Australia.
PYMNTS Data Pegs Two-Year Bite of Inflation at 13.5% - PYMNTS.com
The latest Consumer Price Index report shows that inflation’s growth rate fell for the sixth straight month. That should be good news, but PYMNTS.com contends that consumers are not feeling it.
From Flywire
Leonidas Travel plans on a busy 2023 as Croatia joins euro, open travel zone
The travel industry in Croatia is preparing for what many providers expect to be another busy year on the heels of a record-breaking 2022 that saw the highest number of visitors and revenue ever.
Flywire Secures Major Payment Institution License from the Monetary Authority of Singapore
Flywire recently secured an in-principle approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to operate as a Major Payment Institution License holder. We sat down with Frans Wiwanto, Flywire’s Managing Director of APAC based in Singapore, to discuss the significance of this designation.
Stat of the week
$40 trillion - Up from $37 trillion in 2022, Juniper Research says global spend on B2B cross-border payments will reach a new high by 2024.
Report of the week
FinTech in Africa: Momentum is Building and the World is Taking Notice
Financial Technology Partners details fintech’s promise in Africa, where investment is flowing and unicorns are beginning to emerge. The firm says nearly 90% of payments are still made using cash, and more than half of all Africans are unbanked or underbanked.
Word of the week
Navigate - The last two years gave rise to a new star when it comes to nautical business metaphors, The New York Times reports, with its use nearly doubling in the last quarter of 2022 compared with 2019.
Conversation starter
Pokemon-playing fish commit credit cod fraud - Finextra
Read on to learn how a YouTuber hooked his fish on video games – and how they ended up reeling him in for credit card purchases in the Nintendo Store.