Walmart Taps Fiserv to Offer Pay by Bank

Walmart Taps Fiserv to Offer Pay by Bank
  • Walmart is partnering with Fiserv to enable pay-by-bank payments for online purchases starting in 2025.
  • Benefits to Walmart include lower transaction costs, faster settlement, reduced fraud, and fewer payment declines, while customers can avoid stacked pending transactions.
  • Consumers may face challenges like added friction and lost credit card rewards, but early pilot results have exceeded Walmart’s expectations for pay-by-bank adoption.

Walmart made its latest move in the fintech space this week after announcing it has partnered with Fiserv to offer pay-by-bank for online purchases.

Bloomberg unveiled this week that, while the retailer has offered pay-by-bank via Walmart Pay for a few months now, the payments were routed through ACH payment rails and still took days to clear. Beginning in 2025, however, Walmart will leverage Fiserv’s NOW Network, which will route the payments through The Clearing House’s Real Time Payments network and the Federal Reserve’s FedNow. Launched in 2014, Fiserv’s NOW Network aims to reach as many banks as possible to provide consumers and businesses the ability to send, receive, and access funds immediately while supporting credit push payments.

Starting next year, customers will be able to make online purchases using pay-by-bank by connecting their bank account through Fiserv’s AllData platform. The platform will facilitate authentication and securely link bank accounts. This will be done through integrations with Plaid, MX, Akoya, and Finicity, ensuring a seamless and secure connection to customer accounts.

Leveraging Fiserv to power real time payments is an important move for Walmart as it enters the pay-by-bank game. As Fiserv Head of Digital Payments Matt Wilcox told Bloomberg, “As an industry we believe we need to create this connectivity. FedNow and RTP, they don’t necessarily talk to one another. The NOW Network can play that role in the industry of bringing all these networks together to enable applications like pay-by-bank.”

Walmart stands to receive multiple benefits when consumers choose to pay-by-bank. The retailer will face lower transaction costs by bypassing credit card networks; increased cash flow, since bank transfers settle faster than card transactions; reduced fraud and fewer declines, since the pay-by-bank payments offers direct access to and will authenticate a customer’s bank account; and the potential to reach more consumers who may not have a credit or debit card.

From a consumer perspective, the benefits of pay-by-bank are more difficult to find. Unlike the merchant, they don’t experience any cost savings for opting for pay-by-bank, there is added friction involved in connecting their bank account to Walmart’s platform, they lose out on credit card rewards, and in the event their account is hacked, fraudsters will have the option to make purchases directly from their account, instead of on a credit card that would offer an extra layer of protection while the customer disputes the transaction.

That said, Walmart is touting the ability for pay-by-bank to help consumers avoid stacked pending transactions. “When the transaction processes as a real time payment, customers get immediate access to see that payment come through, I see it hit my account and I can properly budget,” said Walmart Vice President of Emerging Payments Jamie Henry. “It’s not as if I’ve got this phantom payment out there that’s going to take place a couple days down the road.”

And while I remain skeptical on the mass consumer adoption of pay-by-bank, perhaps Walmart’s customer base is more well suited for these types of transactions. Henry said that the initial pilot of pay-by-bank was surprising. “It’s certainly surpassed our expectations of the amount of customers that have registered and actually use the payment type,” he said.


Photo by Marques Thomas on Unsplash

PayPal and Fiserv Tighten Ties for Faster Checkout

PayPal and Fiserv Tighten Ties for Faster Checkout
  • Fiserv is tapping PayPal to help its merchant clients offer faster checkouts through PayPal’s Fastlane.
  • Fastlane recognizes returning customers via email, allowing them to autofill payment details and complete purchases in as little as one click.
  • PayPal estimates Fastlane users convert more than 80% of the time, with a 50% higher conversion rate and a 32% faster checkout process compared to non-users.

After first partnering more than a decade ago, PayPal and Fiserv have furthered their partnership to help Fiserv’s merchant clients leverage PayPal to offer shoppers a faster checkout experience.

Specificaly, Fiserv will allow its merchant clients to connect to PayPal’s Fastlane, which will ultimately help speed up guest checkout flows in the U.S. Fiserv joins BigCommerce, Bold, Adobe, and Salesforce, which also offer PayPal’s Fastlane.

“We’re excited to deepen our collaboration with Fiserv and extend our innovative products and solutions to a broader audience,” said PayPal Executive Vice President and General Manager Large Enterprise and Merchant Platform Group Frank Keller. “This partnership reinforces our commitment to driving excellence in checkout convenience by partnering with leading payment service providers and e-commerce platforms.”

Fastlane, which PayPal first launched in January and then made generally available earlier this month, recognizes customers early in the checkout process by their email. After customers receive a one-time passcode sent via email, Fastlane allows shoppers to access their saved information by autofilling the fields in the checkout flow. Once verified, customers can complete their purchase in as little as one click. If Fastlane does not recognize a shopper by their email, it allows them to create a Fastlane profile by opting in during their purchase process, enabling faster transactions in the future.

Because the tool does not require users to fill out forms or remember passwords, PayPal estimates that guest shoppers using Fastlane convert more than 80% of the time, have up to 50% higher conversion rates compared to non-Fastlane users, and reduce the time to checkout by 32%.

“Fiserv is committed to simplifying the complexities of commerce, creating value for our clients by making it simple for businesses to enable new, engaging experiences for their customer base,” said Fiserv Head of Merchant Solutions Jennifer LaClair. “Our expanded partnership with PayPal supports our mission to enhance client value by providing simple, cutting-edge solutions to our clients that elevate and accelerate the commerce experience.”


Photo by David Rado

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Investment and innovation are defining the wealth management space as the week begins. LA-based wealth management platform Altruist enters the week with $169 million more in capital, courtesy of a Series E round led by Iconiq Growth. Meanwhile, JP Morgan Chase announced that it has deployed generative AI to enhance its thematic investment offering.

Be sure to check back all week long for more fintech news!

Crypto

Revolut launches its stand-alone crypto exchange for professional crypto traders, Revolut X.

MoonPay announces collaboration with PayPal to enable MoonPay users in the U.S. to buy crypto via their PayPal accounts.

Nayms partners with Coinbase to leverage on-chain technology for insurance transactions.

Community banking

New Peoples Bank turns to Jack Henry for its core processing technology and Banno Digital Platform.

Spend management

Expensify, the financial management super app for expenses and corporate cards, unveiled its new travel platform, Expensify Travel.

Insurtech

CoverTree, an insurtech specializing in manufactured home insurance, secures $13 million in Series A funding.

U.K.-based digital life insurance and income protection product company Eleos raises $4 million in seed funding.

Embedded insurance company CoverGenius inks partnership with Adyen.

Payments

Keybank introduces virtual account management powered by Qolo.

Checkout.com launches its Payments-as-a-Service solution, Flow.

WaFd Bank selects Fiserv’s CashFlow CentralSM to expand payment capabilities for small businesses.

NAB and Banked team up to launch Pay by Bank for Australian merchants.

YES BANK and EBANX partner to empower cross-border commerce in India.

Crowded launches international currency transfers for nonprofits, enabled by Visa Direct and Cross River.

Fraud prevention

AML and fraud risk mitigation company Unit21 launches ACH Risk Scores and Action Event Rules.

Investing / Wealth management

Life insurance and wealth management solutions provider iPipeline introduces its first Chief Product Officer Katie Kahl.

Wealth management platform Altruist raises $169 million in Series E funding.

JP Morgan Chase introduces its IndexGPT thematic investing tool.

Pure Financial Advisors generates more than $1 billion in new AUM through its SmartAsset partnership.

Data and analytics

Bank personalization engine company Moneythor appoints Martin Frick as its new Chief Executive Officer.

AI

AI Squared acquires open-source reverseETL technology company Multiwoven.

Lending

Planet Home Lending appoints Paul Walker as Chief Financial Officer.

Libro Credit Union seeks to enhance its lending operations via a transition to nCino’s cloud banking platform.

Communication & Virtual Assistants

How Eltropy’s AI-powered conversations platform helps 3 FIs reduce delinquencies.

Wipro collaborates with Microsoft to launch a suite of generative AI-powered virtual assistants for financial services.

Digital banking

Velmie and Unlimit partner to accelerate European Fintech growth.

FIS launches Atelio to provide the building blocks for BaaS and embedded finance.

Small business

Mercury launches new software to help businesses simplify financial workflows: billpay, accounting automations and employee reimbursement tools.

Basware acquires AP Matching. 

KeyBank launches KeyVAM, a virtual account management solution powered by Qolo for treasury management clients who have complex demand deposit account structures.

Regtech

Global RegTech consolidator Corlytics acquires Deloitte UK’s RegTech platform.

Embedded finance

Issuer-processor Paymentology teams up with Diamond Trust Bank to bring embedded finace solutions to customers in Kenya.

Accelerators and incubators

Ally Financial launches its Ally Innovation Challenge to promote solutions leveraging Responsible AI.


Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

Digital Conversations Platform Eltropy Integrates with Fiserv’s Portico

Digital Conversations Platform Eltropy Integrates with Fiserv’s Portico
  • Digital conversations platform Eltropy has integrated with Fiserv’s account processing platform Portico.
  • The integration will enable credit unions using Portico to use Eltropy solutions such as advanced Text, Video, and co-browsing.
  • Eltropy most recently demoed its technology last year at FinovateFall.

Digital conversations platform for community financial institutions (CFIs) Eltropy announced an integration with Fiserv’s full-service account processing platform Portico today. The integration will enable credit unions using Portico to leverage a variety of Eltropy communications solutions. These include advanced Text, Video, Secure Chat, co-browsing, screen sharing, and chatbots. And all of this functionality is contained within a single platform.

“This partnership with Fiserv allows us to boost efficiency and improve communications capabilities and security – including two-factor authentication – for even more community financial institutions,” Eltropy VP of Strategic Partnerships Jason Smith said. “This integration has the potential to elevate member engagement across all channels, equipping credit unions with the tools they need to thrive in today’s competitive landscape.”

Eltropy’s technology empowers credit unions to sync contacts, send promotional texts, and offer personalized, one-on-one conversations with members. The Portico integration will support communications between departments, facilitating secure and efficient interactions between lending, collections, sales, marketing and other internal sources.

The ability to sync contacts was a particular highlight of the integration. Eltropy’s sync-up feature enables credit unions to integrate member data with Eltropy’s Digital Conversations Platform. Unveiled last month, the Digital Conversations Platform unifies Eltropy’s Video Banking, Enterprise Texting, and Digital Contact Center solutions, and adds AI capabilities, as well. This integration will give credit unions comprehensive member insights that can drive member segmentation and make more personalized products and services possible.

“Integrating Eltropy’s innovative messaging capabilities into our Portico core banking platform allows credit unions to streamline communication and enhance member engagement,” Fiserv VP of Product Management & Strategy for Credit Union Solutions Vanessa Stock said. “Messages can now be sent directly from the application, cutting call center wait times and building stronger member relationships.”

A Finovate alum since 2017, Eltropy made its most recent Finovate appearance last September at FinovateFall. At the event, the company demoed Eltropy One, the firm’s all-in-one omni-channel solution that enables FIs to manage both inbound and outbound communications from a universal console. Eltropy has forged a number of new credit union partnerships this year, including alliances with InRoads Credit Union and Cyprus Credit Union. The company has also partnered with a number of fintechs, including fellow Finovate alums Akuvo, Q2, and Alkami.


Photo by Alex Andrews

Finovate Global UK: Funding Innovation in Rewards, Payments, Lending, and Crypto

Finovate Global UK: Funding Innovation in Rewards, Payments, Lending, and Crypto

London-based fintech and digital wallet HyperJar announced a partnership with digital gift card network, Tillo. The announcement makes HyperJar the first spending app to integrate instant Cashback Gift Cards. The cards enable customers to earn instant cashback of up to 15% from more than 50 top brands including Ikea and Amazon.

In a statement, HyperJar’s Nicola Longfield underscored that not only was HyperJar the first app to integrate the cashback gift cards with a spending account, but also HyperJar was the first to offer “merchant cashback.” This option enables users to choose a higher cashback rate that is specific to a given merchant.

HyperJar’s partnership news comes one month after the company secured $24 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Susquehanna Private Equity Investments. More than 500,000 individuals, including more than 100,000 child cardholders, use HyperJar’s digital wallets.

HyperJar began the year with the appointment of a new CEO, Morgan Stanley veteran Rob Rooney.


A handful of U.K.-based fintechs secured funding this week. Instant payments company Lopay announced a seed investment of $7.3 million (£6 million). Participating in the round were BackedVC, Portage, The Venture Collective, and angel investors. With 20,000 SMEs signed up since launch, the company offers a app that allows small businesses to accept card payments. The app also enables instant access to cleared funds as soon as transactions are completed. Founded in 2022, Lopay plans to use the capital to expand its operations.

Fellow U.K.-based fintech Kennek was another company that locked in seed funding this week. The firm raised $12.5 million in new capital in a round led by HV Capital. Dutch Founders Fund, AlbionVC, FFVC, Plug & Play Ventures, and Syndicate One also participated. The investment follows a $4.5 million pre-seed round closed in February.

Founded in 2021 and headquartered in London, Kennek offers an operating system for lending via a platform that supports the entire lending lifecycle from loan origination to servicing. The company will use the funds to further develop its core technology and add employees.

But the big winner of the week for U.K. fintechs in terms of funding was Untangled Finance. The firm, which operates a tokenized real-world asset (RWA) marketplace, secured $13.5 million in strategic funding in a round led by Fasanara Capital. Founded in 2020, Untangled Finance plans to use the capital for product development and to fuel growth.

The London-based company offers a tokenization platform that facilitates placing traditional financial assets on a blockchain. These real-world financial assets can range from bonds to real estate. Untangled Finance is part of a growing field within the digital asset industry that specializes in asset tokenization, a field that could grow as large as $5 trillion within the next five years, according to a recent report. Note that, along with its investment, Fasanara Capital opened two private tokenized credit pools on Untangled Finance’s platform.


Speaking of DeFi, for those who believe that regulation is the path to greater acceptance of cryptocurrencies, this week’s announcement from the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) could be considered good news.

Within 24 hours of its new cryptoassets regulatory regime going live, the FCA has issued 146 alerts to non-compliant companies that were promoting cryptoassets to U.K. customers in violation of the new policy, which was announced earlier this year.

In a statement, the FCA urged consumers to check its publicly available “Warning List” before investing or trading in cryptocurrencies. “We take a risk-based approach, so not alll firms of potential concern will be added straightaway,” the FCA explained. At the same time, regulators hope their Warning List will nevertheless help would-be crypto investors “understand where firms’ promotions may be breaking the law and to consider the promotion with the full information available.”


Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Asia-Pacific

  • Coinbase secured a Major Payment Institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
  • Packworks, a Philippines-based fintech, inked a deal to help SMEs secure microfinancing.
  • Forbes looked at the current challenges facing Chinese fintechs.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Nigerian startup Haba InsurTech raised $75,000 in pre-seed funding.
  • Kenya-based Buy Now, Pay Later fintech Lipa Later announced an investment of $3.4 million.
  • Nigeria’s Paystack announced an expansion into offline payments with the launch of virtual terminals for in-person bank transfers.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Slovakia-based online payment solutions provider TrustPay launched an instant refunds feature.
  • BlackRock secured a minority stake in German digital wealth managment platform Upvest.
  • AML prevention and compliance solutions provider Savy forged a partnership with Lithuanian regtech AMLYZE.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • MENA-based open banking platform Tarabut partnered with digital lending platform FLOOSS to bring digital loans to Bahrain.
  • Israeli fintech Stampli secured $61 million for its AI-powered accounts payable automation platform.
  • Emirates NBD launched its digital wealth platform.

Central and Southern Asia

  • India-based Axis Bank partners with Fibe to launch the country’s first numberless credit card.
  • Uzum Group, and a group of institutional investors, have pledged to invest $300 million in Uzbekistan’s digital economy.
  • Indian fintech Spice Money announced a collaboration with NSDL Payments Bank.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • U.K.-based TerraPay teamed up with Bancolombia to enhance cross-border remittances in Colombia.
  • Fiserv acquired Brazilian EFT solution Skytef.
  • Chilean fintech Galgo secured $40 million in funding led by Mexico’s Nazca fund.

Photo by Marianna

Fiserv Offers More Than 3,000 Institutions Access to Plaid’s Network

Fiserv Offers More Than 3,000 Institutions Access to Plaid’s Network
  • Fiserv has partnered with Plaid to offer its bank clients API-based connectivity to third-party applications on Plaid’s network.
  • The agreement leverages Fiserv’s AllData Connect to allow credential-free data sharing.
  • Fiserv has signed a similar consumer-permissioned data sharing agreements with Akoya, MX, and Finicity.

Digital banking and payments solutions company Fiserv has partnered with financial infrastructure fintech Plaid this week. The two have formed a data-sharing agreement that will offer Fiserv’s 3,000 bank and credit union clients API-based connectivity to the 8,000+ applications on Plaid’s network.

The data-sharing agreement, which will leverage Fiserv’s AllData Connect, will ultimately benefit the end consumer. The deal will help consumers who bank with Fiserv clients share their financial information with third-party financial apps and services such as Venmo, Chime, SoFi, and Betterment.

“Our partnership with Plaid allows banks and credit unions to empower consumers to access their financial information beyond the financial institution, while maintaining their trusted role at the center of people’s financial lives,” said Fiserv President of Digital Payments Matt Wilcox. “By facilitating access to a broad range of capabilities and experiences through third-party apps and services we are charting a course towards an open finance ecosystem that prioritizes data privacy, consumer access, and choice.”

Data sharing via API connectivity instead of an alternative such as screen-scraping offers end users a more seamless way to integrate their financial data into third-party platforms. The API connection also provides consumers more security than screen-scraping, a process that requires them to share their bank login credentials with a third party, which may not have the same level of security as a bank. The data sharing will be secure, transparent, and compliant with the anticipated regulatory guidance outlined by Dodd Frank 1033.

FDX Managing Director Don Cardinal called the relationship between Fiserv and Plaid “a leap forward for direct data sharing and great news for the ecosystem.”

Fiserv’s AllData Connect launched in 2020 and is part of the company’s AllData Aggregation product suite, a set of tools that enables credential-free data sharing. AllData Connect validates the consumer with their respective financial institution and issues a token employed by third parties to access and update that consumer’s data via the AllData Connect platform.

Fiserv signed a similar consumer-permissioned data agreement with Akoya in August and has also partnered with MX and Finicity for data sharing.

Fiserv was founded in 1984 and offers solutions that are used in nearly six million merchant locations and almost 10,000 financial institution clients. The company powers 12,000 financial transactions each second. Fiserv is listed on the NASDAQ under the ticker FI and has a market capitalization of $68.8 billion.

Plaid helps 12,000+ financial institutions offer their customers access to its network of 8,000+ third party financial services via a suite of APIs that connects consumers, financial institutions, and developers. The company also offers identity verification, balance checks, risk assessment scoring, transaction analytics, and more. Plaid was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.


Photo by Lukas

Fiserv and Akoya Team Up for Consumer-Permissioned Data

Fiserv and Akoya Team Up for Consumer-Permissioned Data
  • Fiserv and Akoya announced a partnership this week.
  • Fiserv will have API access to consumer data from Akoya’s network of financial organizations.
  • Akoya will utilize Fiserv’s AllData Connect to access consumer data held at financial institutions.

Digital banking and payments solutions company Fiserv has partnered with consumer-permissioned data company Akoya this week. Under the agreement, the two will facilitate financial data sharing among banks, their end customers, and the third party apps the customers engage with.

Fiserv will have API access to consumer data from Akoya’s network of financial institutions and brokerage firms, while Akoya will utilize Fiserv’s AllData Connect to access consumer data from more than 2,800 financial institutions.

“Fiserv and Akoya are empowering consumers to share their data by creating a broader and more secure data access network,” said Fiserv President of Digital Payments Matt Wilcox. “Direct access to data facilitates more integrated digital experiences for consumers and improves the security of the financial ecosystem.”

Akoya’s APIs can create secure, permissioned access to consumers’ account data across Fiserv’s client base of banks, fintechs, and merchants. This free flow of information across the network can help reduce risk related to account opening, funding, and account-to-account transfers. On the merchant side, consumers can opt to transact using a Pay by Bank option in which consumers link their bank account to the merchant’s wallet or app to make direct payments to the merchant.

Ultimately, the partnership will help consumers choose what financial data from their bank they want to share with third party providers.

“This will help consumers manage exactly who they give their data to and understand how their data will be accessed and used,” said Akoya CEO Paul LaRusso. “100% of Akoya’s traffic to financial institutions goes through APIs. Akoya doesn’t ask for consumers’ passwords, and it doesn’t screen-scrape. All consumers deserve this protection and control.”

In the U.S., where open banking regulations do not exist, partnerships like these are key to empowering consumers with control over their financial data. In addition to helping end customers, this open structure also creates efficiencies by empowering organizations with more data, reduces fraud by eliminating screen scraping, and reduces errors that come with manual data entry.

Founded in 1984, Fiserv’s solutions are used in nearly six million merchant locations and almost 10,000 financial insitution clients. The company powers 12,000 financial transactions each second. Fiserv is listed on the NASDAQ under the ticker FI and has a market capitalization of $73.6 billion.


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Deutsche Bank Taps Fiserv to Launch New Payments Company in Germany

Deutsche Bank Taps Fiserv to Launch New Payments Company in Germany
  • Deutsche Bank and Fiserv are teaming up to launch Vert, a payment acceptance and processing company aimed to serve small businesses.
  • Unlike other tools on the market, Vert will also offer traditional banking services.
  • Deutsche Bank has a built-in client base of around 800,000 small-to-medium-sized businesses who will be able to access the new solutions.

Deutsche Bank and Fiserv announced a partnership this week that will change the landscape of payments competition in Germany. The two have teamed up to launch Vert, a payment acceptance and processing company that also offers traditional banking solutions.

Aimed to serve small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs), Vert provides a single, integrated offering that streamlines access to banking products. The new service differentiates itself by providing next-banking-day pay-outs, which enables merchants to improve their cashflow with faster access to their funds. Vert also offers acceptance of common payment types and comes with an online dashboard that helps companies analyze transaction data and view a variety of business reports.

“By combining the strength of Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest bank, with Fiserv, the world’s largest merchant acquirer, we can provide our Vert members with a secure, fast and technologically advanced payment acceptance solution,” said Vert Managing Director of Sales & Product Thorsten Woelfel.

Vert is launching with three products:

  • Clover Flex is a portable payment acceptance device that offers a tip function and business management apps.
  • Go by Vert app that enables merchants to accept payments on their own Android device using secure PIN entry that allows the merchant to accept payments above contactless-only limits.
  • The PAX A50 is a small card reader device that enables merchants to accept card payments without having to carry around a heavy device.

“With a unique combination of payment and banking capabilities, Vert is already helping small and mid-sized enterprises in Germany do business more easily, with less complexity,” said Fiserv Head of EMEA John Gibbons. “We look forward to helping thousands of merchants streamline their operations and continue to delight their customers.”

Deutsche Bank comes with a merchant client base of its own. Between the bank’s retail banking division Postbank and entrepreneur-focused digital bank Fyrst, Deutsche Bank counts around 800,000 SMBs who will be able to access the new solutions. In fact, some of these merchants are already live with Vert. The bank also expects to attract business customers from outside of its own client base.


Photo by Maheshkumar Painam on Unsplash

Fiserv Taps The Clearing House to Expand Access to Real-Time Payments

Fiserv Taps The Clearing House to Expand Access to Real-Time Payments
  • Fiserv is leveraging a partnership with The Clearing House to help its bank clients offer real time payments.
  • Banks that integrate into Fiserv’s NOW Gateway will benefit from real time payments in peer-to-peer payments, interbank account transfers, billpay, and more.
  • The partnership comes as the U.S. Federal Reserve announced pilot participants of its own real time payments system, FedNow.

Fintech solutions provider Fiserv is in the fintech headlines today for its move to help its bank clients provide real time payments to their end users. The Wisconsin-based company is partnering with The Clearing House (TCH), which is allowing Fiserv’s bank customers to access its Real Time Payments (RTP) network via Fiserv’s NOW Gateway.

Banks can integrate into the NOW Gateway, which leverages the RTP network, to offer their clients a range of real time payments services, including peer-to-peer payments with Zelle, payouts for gig economy work and insurance claims, interbank account transfers, and real time bill payments. Ultimately, the move will allow financial institutions to send and receive real time payments on behalf of their customers over the RTP network, which connects to over 60% of bank accounts in the U.S.

“To remain competitive, financial institutions must offer real-time payment capabilities. That’s why we are committed to making real-time implementation easier for any financial institution, from regional bank to community bank, to credit union,” said Fiserv’s President of Digital Payments and Data Aggregation Matt Wilcox. “Our work with The Clearing House to integrate the RTP network with our NOW Gateway is the latest advancement towards this goal.”

Founded in 1853, TCH clears and settles more than $2 trillion a day through wire, ACH, check image, and real-time payments. The company’s RTP network facilitates real time payments by immediately clearing and settling payments. In the first quarter of this year, the network cleared almost 37 million transactions totaling almost $16 billion.

Today’s news comes as the U.S. Federal Reserve’s real time payments tool, FedNow, began onboarding pilot participants. Fiserv is among the first 120 pilot organizations, a list which also includes Finastra, Green Dot, Q2, Square, Temenos, and Visa. The purpose of the pilot is to establish connectivity and perform technical and operational tasks that will lay the groundwork for full-scale, end-to-end testing later this year.

Fiserv most recently demoed at FinovateWest 2020 where it showcased its Virtual Banking Assistant, a tool that helps banks deliver intelligent, AI-driven conversational experiences. With nearly 10,000 financial institution clients, the company facilitates 12,000 transactions each second. Frank Bisignano is president and CEO.


Photo by Monstera

Fintech Merger and Acquisition Activity Starts Strong in Q1 2022

Fintech Merger and Acquisition Activity Starts Strong in Q1 2022

While 2021 was a record year for fintech merger and acquisition (M&A) activity, 2022 is off to a great start.

According to FT Partners, there were 1,485 M&A deals in the fintech space totaling $348.5 billion in 2021. As Square’s $29 billion takeover of Afterpay demonstrated, last year’s massive volume is partially thanks to multiple large deals.

This quarter, only eight of the 21 deals initiated disclosed financial details. Of those, the deal volume added up to almost $5 billion.

January

February

March

While experts predict that 2022 M&A activity will likely see momentum from 2021, there are two aspects to watch out for this year. First, we will not see as many SPACs as we saw last year. This may decrease the number of companies choosing to exit this year. Second, fintech valuations are deflating after experiencing huge rises over the course of the past two years. While the loss in value won’t directly impact the number of M&A deals, it will decrease the deal volume.


Photo by Martin Lopez

Fiserv Agrees to Acquire Finxact in Deal Valued at $650 Million

Fiserv Agrees to Acquire Finxact in Deal Valued at $650 Million
  • Fiserv has agreed to acquire Finxact in a transaction valued at $650 million.
  • The acquisition will help bolster Fiserv’s position as “partner of choice” for firms looking to add to their digital banking offerings.
  • First Data Ventures, the corporate arm of 2019 Fiserv acquisition First Data, was an early investor in Finxact.

Leading fintech and payments company Fiserv announced today that it has agreed to acquire cloud native banking solution provider Finxact. An early investor in the company, Fiserv will purchase the remaining ownership interest in Finxact for $650 million, and will leverage the acquisition to add to Fiserv’s account processing, digital, and payments solutions.

“Through this combination, Fiserv will create a streamlined path for clients to offer digital solutions to their customers,” Fiserv President and CEO Frank Bisignano said. “Finxact also enhances our ability to support a growing number of financial institutions and business clients.”

Jacksonville, Florida-based Finxact offers a core-as-a-service platform that enables financial institutions to innovate and bring new solutions to market without requiring a complete technological overhaul of existing systems. Finxact leverages open banking APIs and the cloud to help firms future-proof and add flexibility to their businesses by abstracting the critical components of core banking from other operations and services – such as mobile banking, communications, and statements. The company’s partners range from financial institutions like Live Oak Bank ($8.2 billion in assets) and Iberiabank’s Virtual Bank to fintechs like Personetics and Anchorage Digital.

Calling the acquisition a “tremendous opportunity” for his six-year old company, Finxact Chairman and CEO Frank Sanchez said, “We recognize that Finxact’s technology can serve to level up the industry’s delivery infrastructure, and crucially at a time when banking is undergoing transformative change. We will be better positioned to serve a far greater number of institutions, of all sizes, when combined with the breadth and depth of Fiserv capabilities.”

Finxact was founded in 2016 and has raised $42 million in funding. The company ended 2021 with the introduction of its no-code visual Product Launchpad, a platform enhancement that brings a visual design experience to the creation and deployment of products on the Finxact core.

The acquisition of Finxact is only the latest fintech deal by Fiserv since its big, $22 billion purchase of First Data Corporation in 2019. Last fall, Fiserv announced the completion of its acquisition of marketing and commerce platform BentoBox. The year before, Fiserv acquired digital card services platform Ondot. Other recent acquisitions include its pick-up of Bypass Mobile in 2020 and NetPay in 2021. The company’s most recent Finovate appearance was at FinovateWest 2020, an all-digital event in which Fiserv demoed its Virtual Banking Assistant. The technology brings AI-driven, conversational experiences to call center operations, boosting customer engagement and reducing costs.


Photo by Dave Colman from Pexels

Mastercard, Fiserv Team Up with Bakkt to Bring Digital Assets to Loyalty Programs

Mastercard, Fiserv Team Up with Bakkt to Bring Digital Assets to Loyalty Programs

A partnership between cryptocurrency exchange Bakkt and Mastercard is being heralded as a major breakthrough in bringing digital assets into the mainstream.

“Mastercard is committed to offering a wide range of payment solutions that deliver more choice, value, and impact every day,” Mastercard EVP of Digital Payments Sherri Haymond. “Together with Bakkt and grounded by our principled approach to innovation, we’ll not only empower our partners to offer a dynamic mix of digital assets options, but also deliver differentiated and relevant consumer experiences.”

The collaboration will enable Mastercard partners to leverage the company’s network and Bakkt’s trusted digital asset platform to enable consumers to buy, sell, and hold digital assets using custodial wallets powered by Bakkt’s platform. Additionally, consumers will benefit from streamlined issuance of branded crypto debit and credit cards.

Mastercard will also make cryptocurrencies a bigger part of its loyalty programs. Mastercard partners will be able to offer cryptocurrency as rewards and enable consumers to transfer value between loyalty points and digital assets. This will allow users to effectively use cryptocurrencies for everyday transactions and, perhaps even more significantly, marry cryptocurrencies to their preferred purchases.

“We’re incredibly excited to partner with Mastercard to bring crypto loyalty services to millions of consumers,” Bakkt EVP for Loyalty, Rewards, & Payments Nancy Gordon said. “As brands and merchants look to appeal to younger consumers and their transaction preferences, these new offerings represent a unique opportunity to satisfy increasing demand for crypto, payment, and rewards flexibility.”

In addition to its partnership with Mastercard, Bakkt also announced that it had entered a strategic relationship with Fiserv that will also help support mainstream adoption and use of cryptocurrencies. A major feature of the collaboration will be the integration of Bakkt into Fiserv’s Carat omnichannel ecosystem. This will enable businesses to offer both B2B and B2C cryptocurrency payouts, loyalty programs, and transactions. Fiserv and Bakkt also announced plans to introduce Bakkt technology that enables customers to store and transact with digital assets to Fiserv’s financial institution clients.

Founded in 2018 and based in Alpharetta, Georgia, Bakkt became a publicly traded company only a few days ago, launching on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BKKT. The listing came courtesy of a SPAC sponsored by Chicago investment firm Victory Park Capital. In the weeks leading up to the company’s debut as a public company, Bakkt had announced partnerships with other Finovate alums including Finastra, Google, and, earlier this year, Blackhawk Network.


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