Our monthly news roundup collects 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 12+ 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 fintech and payments headlines from June 2024.
Headlines:
Treasury Management Playbook Dials Up New Cash Flow Strategies – PYMNTS.com
Higher interest rates and heightened market volatility increase the need for actionable insights and more accurate forecasting. However, the wealth of data now available to treasurers does not automatically transfer. A new report from PYMNTS.com and Citi looks at some of the challenges treasurers face and details best practices for their data and technology strategies.
Faster payments catch on slowly: survey – PaymentsDive
Only about half of payments players surveyed recently by the U.S. Faster Payments Council said they have integrated faster payment technologies.
My first day: Airbnb CFO Ellie Mertz – CFO Brew
The Airbnb exec shares her insights on enabling a seamless CFO transition when moving up internally.
CFPB Targets Medical Debt — That Could Increase the Cost of Healthcare – PYMNTS.com
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) rules that seek to remove medical debt from credit reports and cap card late fees are proving wildly popular with the general public.
But there may be unintended consequences.
Ask Skift: How Does a Tourism Bump Impact Inflation? – Skift.com
Skift put the question to its AI chatbot, Ask Skift and combined it with additional reporting on the matter. The story looks at key drivers for inflation and how it is impacting specific travel destinations including Greece, Iceland and Japan.
From Flywire:
For our latest report, The secret weapon for attracting and retaining international customers, we commissioned a survey of more than 460 B2B payers across Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. The data highlights how B2B payments impact the customer experience, and the importance of accounts receivable (A/R) as a business driver.
Global payment insights for UK higher education
International students are critical to UK higher education but, with some universities taking payments from as many as 170 nationalities it is almost impossible to keep up with the latest payment developments in every country. In this blog post, Flywire’s Global Payments experts provide important insights on select international student recruitment markets.
4 luxury traveler insights for DMC growth in 2025 and beyond
Luxury travelers are using DMCs more than ever, driven by their desire for personalized, authentic experiences. This blog post shares insights on recently commissioned research by Flywire highlighting what makes travel “luxury” align with the services DMCs offer some key generational differences worth noting.
Flywire's travel tech partnerships in focus: Sugati, TourAmigo, Inseanq, Art2Fly
In June, Flywire announced its latest partnerships in the travel space further solidifying our commitment to exceptional client service and a streamlined payment experience for global travelers, regardless of their booking journey.
With almost 25% of all higher education students in Australia hailing from overseas, the country is one of the most popular international study destinations, particularly with students from South Asian countries, including China, India, and Korea. Over 10+ years, Xetta and Flywire have worked together to simplify cross-border payments for those students.
3 reasons payments should be part of your CX strategy
Improving customer experience (CX) is top of the agenda for insurance companies across the globe. In a world where insurance is highly commoditized in the eyes of policyholders and price rises are inevitable, it may be the only real point of differentiation they have. Payments are an important part of that experience.
Flywire joined 5,000+ pros from insurtechs, carriers, agents, brokers, MGAs and technology partners at the Javits Center in New York City to discuss the many changes facing the industry. Here are some of our biggest takeaways.
3 predictions for the 2024 Summer Olympics from French luxury travel providers
Around 15 million people are expected to travel to Paris this summer for the 2024 Olympics. Not a huge surprise. The most recent Flywire-commissioned research into the preferences of luxury travelers found that 85% like to plan vacations around special events. We spoke to the founders of two luxury destination management companies based in France to get their thoughts on how French travel providers can capitalize.
Is higher education prepared for Gen Alpha’s future enrollment?
Gen Alpha (born between 2010 and 2025), is on pace to be the largest generation in history, and set to enter higher education spaces in the next four years. Flywire CTO David King talks about the unique requirements of this group and what that means for the institutions trying to attract and retain those students.
Report of the Month:
The Real-Time Payments World Map – PYMNTS.com
Real-time payments continue their global sweep, with over 266 billion transactions recorded worldwide in 2023, a 42% year-over-year increase, and even more growth forecasted for the foreseeable future. I
Stat of the Month:
AI is poised to drive 160% increase in data center power demand
For all the hype swirling around AI, the only certainty is the grid-depleting amount of additional electricity needed to power the data centers running it. A Goldman Sachs report estimated that ChatGPT queries need nearly 10 times as much electricity as Google searches.
Word of the Month:
A doomsday perception of the economy; when consumer sentiment gives the vibes of a recession, but it isn’t the economic reality (yet).
Conversation Starter:
Why the Connected Economy Isn’t
Three decades after the start of the commercial internet, most of the world is connected to it — and most people have mobile devices that enable access to it. Yet in Karen Webster’s (PYMNTS.com) view, the world remains in the very early innings of realizing the full potential of the connected economy