Today In Payments: Wirecard Says $2.1B Likely Didn’t Exist; Checkout.com Raises $150M On $5B Valuation

In today’s top news, Wirecard says the missing $2.1 billion from its Philippines accounts probably never existed, and checkout.com raised $150 million. Plus, U.S. consumers are putting more money in the bank than ever before.

Wirecard Says $2.1B Likely Didn’t Exist

Wirecard AG, the Munich, Germany, payment processor, acknowledged Monday that it’s likely the missing 1.9 billion euros ($2.1 billion) from its accounts in the Philippines never existed. As a result, the German payments firm said it will withdraw its 2019 and first quarter 2020 financial results.

Checkout.com Raises $150M On $5B Valuation

Checkout.com, the London-based online payments software platform, has nearly tripled its worth to $5.5 billion following a $150 million round of fundraising. Checkout.com cites a surge in demand as the propeller of this funding round.

Big US Banks Saw $2T Increase In Deposits During Quarantine

A record $2 trillion has been deposited into U.S. bank accounts since the coronavirus first hit the U.S. in January, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Board. The pandemic’s uncertainty has led households and corporations to save.

Treasury To Release SMB Data On PPP Loans

In a 180-degree turn, the President Donald Trump administration now says it will release the names of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) recipients and the amount of taxpayer-funded loans they received from the $660 billion in aid for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

Why Saving Main Street Will Take More Than Just More Money

COVID-19 hit Main Street USA hard, leaving SMBs facing big difficulties making the shift to digital when there’s little or no revenue coming in. The PPP was a good start, but there’s a lot more to do, according to CEO Luz Urrutia of the Opportunity Fund, a nonprofit that lends to SMBs in underserved communities. Listen as Urrutia and Karen Webster discuss in a podcast what more must be done to help the most vulnerable SMBs keep their doors open and the communities they serve alive.

Visa Launches Advanced Identity Score To Help FIs Fight Application Fraud

Financial institutions (FIs) are spending more time and money on battling fraud at the point of onboarding, especially as card-not-present (CNP) transactions surge. To help FIs win the war, Visa has debuted Advanced Identity Score. Melyssa Barrett, vice president of Identity and Risk Products at Visa, tells Karen Webster how it’s leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and its proprietary database of more than 100 million application records to do it.

The Negative Trickle Down Effect of COVID’s (Wealthy) Consumer Spending Pause

Don’t look for the wealthy to spur consumer spending surges that will end the current economic slump. Recent research from Harvard’s Opportunity Insights shows that the rich pulled back on spending more than lower income households — with negative ripple effects, disproportionately, on others’ incomes and livelihoods.