Last week, Today, March 23: 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 fintech and payments headlines from March 9 - March 23.

Headlines

API investments help banks stay competitive within the growing fintech ecosystem - Insider Intelligence
While only 30% of FIs were using APIs (Application Programing Interfaces) as of early 2021, they are growing in importance as banks and credit unions seek to diversify and modernize their tech offerings.

Most Medical debts to Be removed From consumers’ credit reports - Wall Street Journal
The biggest credit reporting firms – Equifax, Experian and TransUnion – will in July start removing medical debt that was paid after it was sent to collections, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Mastercard teams with HSBC for new B2B cash flow, payments solution - PYMNTS
Mastercard will allow businesses in the UK to use their commercial card to pay suppliers, regardless of whether the supplier accepts card payments, according to a press release.

Visa, Mastercard prepare to raise credit card fees - Wall Street Journal
Planned fee increases for merchants – delayed over the past two years because of the pandemic – are scheduled to begin next month, according to reporting in the Wall Street Journal.

Powell says Fed will hike further and faster if necessary - ABCNews.com
On the heels of last week’s announcement that it would raise interest rates, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated that the central bank was prepared to raise interest rates faster and higher if necessary, to deliberately slow the economy.

Bank of Canada collaborating with MIT on CBDC research - CoinTelegraph
The Bank of Canada is partnering with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on a 12-month research project focused on the design of a Central Bank Digital Currency.

From Flywire

Travel: Four things luxury travel professionals should consider for the travel rebound
Because they’re venturing past domestic luxury locations, it makes sense that travelers’ COVID concerns have shifted from how to avoid the virus entirely, to how to ensure the best possible experience in spite of it.

Travel: Luxury travelers are turning to agents and advisors to plan 2022 trips
Agents and advisors are as popular as ever as travelers look to assure a personalized, high-end experience while also factoring in all the health, safety and cancellation policies into their planning.

Education: Northeastern, USC finance leaders discuss creative solutions to higher ed’s most pressing issues
How are higher ed finance leaders applying creativity to their roles and departments? Recently, executives from Northeastern University and USC shared their advice around two relevant topics – education affordability and how to best attract and retain finance administrative staff in a post-COVID world.

Stat of the week

23: States that require students to take a course in personal finance to graduate high school.

Source: Survey of the States: 2022 Economic and Personal Finance Education in Our Nation’s Schools by Council for Economic Education.

Report of the week

2022 Finance Agenda: Key Issues to Address and Critical Actions to Succeed

Treasury & Risk reports that digital transformation emerged as the top priority of finance leaders surveyed by The Hackett Group, with finance teams focused on investing in technologies to reduce costs and improve capabilities.

Conversation starter

Amazon seeks physician leader - Becker’s Hospital Review
Alexa, is there a doctor in the house? Becker’s reports that Amazon recently posted a job opening for a physician leader for AWS, to engage with healthcare leaders and facilitate adoption of AWS for medical imaging, telemedicine and analytics.