PSPs Expanding To Banking: Is it worth it?
Over the past few years, several major payment service providers (PSPs) have expanded their product sets by introducing banking solutions such as cards, credit, and business accounts. In this article, we analyze the banking offerings of select PSPs across Europe and the U.S., listed in Figure 1. Banking products present a natural cross-selling opportunity for […]
Infographic: European Payments M&A Rebounding Strongly After Historically Weak Q1 2023
Image Credits: FreePik General Commentary & Highlights: Investments in the payments sector had unusually limited activity in Q1 2023, yet rebounded exceptionally quickly in Q2 2023, well above historical levels Despite macro-economic headwinds, the market is anticipating an acceleration of M&A activity in the payments sector heading into Q3 2023 and beyond With a significant […]
Infographic: CAB Payments Initial Public Offering (IPO) 2023
General Commentary & Highlights: CAB Payments, the holding company for Crown Agent Bank (CAB), a B2B FX and payments specialist got listed on the London Stock Exchange on 6th July ‘23 The deal had a market cap of £851 mil. at the IPO (largest public debut in London this year) The stock fell sharply on […]
GTCR Acquires a Majority Stake in Worldpay from FIS at Substantially Reduced Valuation
Please do not hesitate to contact Joel Van Arsdale Joel@FlagshipAP.com or Rom Mascetti Rom@FlagshipAP.com with comments or questions.
B2B Payments in Focus: Plastiq’s Bankruptcy and Opportunities for PSPs
Less than a year after an abandoned de-SPAC deal that valued the company at $480 million, Plastiq, a U.S. B2B payments automation platform, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and entered into an agreement to be acquired by Priority Technology Holdings, a publicly traded U.S. merchant acquirer/payment service provider. In this article, we summarize the rise […]
Infographic: Wise FY 2023 Performance Assessment
General Commentary & Highlights: Wise’s stock price surged c.20% to £641.40 on 28th June, fueled by its FY23 results that included surprisingly high growth. Wise stock is up more than 100% since its all-time low one year ago The customer base grew 34% YoY (66% of which joined through word-of-mouth), while volume grew at 37%; […]
What We Learned During Fintech: Spring Conference Season, 2023
Article Synopsis and Visuals Guide: We summarize some of the key themes discussed during the conferences attended by Flagship Advisory Partners’ leadership team from January to June 2023 in the UK/Europe and the U.S. General themes and topics covered: SAAS & Payments/Fintech (C2B & B2B) Payment Orchestration Marketplaces B2B Payments A2A, Open Banking Fraud & […]
Infographic: Evolution of US Acquiring Processing
Article Synopsis and Visuals Guide: The US acquiring processing market is dominated by a select number of monolithic, legacy processors (visual #1) The prolific M&A activity of legacy processors created fragmented, complex platform environments (visual #2); however, the collection of platforms also resulted in processors with breadths of capabilities that are difficult to replicate Legacy […]
Infographic: Paypal Q1 2023 and FY 2022 Performance Assessment
Image and Logo Credits: FreePik, PayPal General Commentary & Highlights PayPal lost ~$155 B in market cap with ~70% decline in share price since Jan ’22 Share price hit a 6-year low on 12 May this year Pace of M&A clearly slowing with potential for divestitures (i.e., Xoom sale being explored) GAAP EPS recorded a […]
Infographic: Card Scheme Performance, 2022-2023
Image and Logo Credits: FreePik, Visa, and Mastercard General Observations Visa and Mastercard continue demonstrating strong performance. Cross-border is a key growth driver, significantly outpacing domestic volume with management citing travel and B2B as key drivers While card counts have grown for both Visa and Mastercard (7% and 5%, respectively), average spend per card has […]