European Consolidation Continues Unabated with Nexi – SIA Acquisition and Nets Rumors
The race to scale in European Payments leapt forward yesterday with the news of Nexi’s acquisition of SIA and rumors of a sale of Nets, for which Nexi is also a rumored potential buyer. These announcements follow a pattern of furious consolidation in the last 5-7 years in a race to achieve preeminent scale in […]
The Great Convergence of Fintech and Business SaaS
The convergence between financial services and business services (delivered as Software as a Service) is accelerating, creating tremendous shareholder value along the way. Fintechs such as Square or PayPal are increasingly expanding their portfolio of both business and financial services. Meanwhile, SaaS providers such as Shopify and Lightspeed are rapidly expanding into payments with the […]
Ant Group IPO Demonstrates the Power of Fintech
Ant Group, the parent company of Chinese digital payments and fintech giant Alipay, recently filed an IPO prospectus which demonstrates the value-creation potential of fintech: for shareholders, consumers, and partners. Ant’s 674-page prospectus makes for fascinating reading, and strikingly illustrates three key takeaways:
Hype vs. Reality of COVID-19’s Impact on the Payments Industry – Part 2
(Part 2* – Dramatic Sectorial Impacts) *This is the second in a series of blogposts in which we compare our original, bearish hypotheses related to COVID-19’s impact on the payments marketplace back in April versus the reality of where we are today. In this second part, we examine the impact of the pandemic on sectorial […]
Hype vs. Reality of COVID-19’s Impact on the Payments Industry – Part 1
(Part 1* – Impact on M&A)
Cracking the Code in Fintech SME Banking
The SME business segment has traditionally been profit-challenged for large commercial banks. Many fintechs love the segment however, due to general under-penetration and opportunities to differentiate with digital products and quick and easy user experiences. Despite the pandemic, fintechs continue to pile into the SME segment as illustrated by recent introductions of business banking services […]
2020 Darwinian Shakeout in European Fintech
(Adapted from original publication in The Paypers)
Optimizing Payment Acceptance Requires a Sound Strategy
Payments are an increasingly strategic function within merchants of all varieties (retail, travel, digital, etc.). Payments are a key enabler of digital commerce and a mission-critical point of customer interaction and loyalty. Far too often; however, we come across merchants with otherwise large and thriving businesses that lack a strategy to guide payments development and […]
PayFac: Key Theme for EU Payments in the 2020’s
The marketplace for European payments has gone through a series of evolutionary waves, beginning in the 1990’s when the markets were domestic and owned by banks. The 2000’s was defined by the move to a single European payments market and a massive wave of M&A and consolidation. The 2010’s saw a boom in fintech, enabled […]
Payment Stocks Perform Well During Pandemic
Image credits: Adyen