Today in FinTech: Netspend Says Partnerships Can Save Brands Time, Money

Today in FinTech, Netspend brings up the existential question every brand should ponder: Should they become a FinTech just because they can? Plus, domestic freight and trucking have been long overdue for a payments overhaul, and Mastercard partner with 16 companies on its real-time digital payments program.

Why Brands Don’t Have to Be a FinTech to Play Like One

Netspend Senior Vice President of Bank and Network Operations and Partnerships Walt Granville said any brand can be a FinTech if they invest adequate time and money. The bigger question is, should they bother? Granville said firms need to look deep inside themselves and their organizations to answer what really is an existential question. While many firms never question their digital-first trailblaze, outsourcing digital transformation may be the right course of action for some brands.

Supply Chain Woes Offer Busy Truckers Chance to Look Into New Payments Platforms

The pandemic proved to be a catalyst for change for many business sectors, and the freight industry was overdue as far as getting payments up to speed and leveraging the latest technologies. Melissa Forman, senior vice president and chief strategy officer at TriumphPay, said although the problem started with deregulation in the 1980s, connecting the industry’s disparate systems is now the name of the game and is a major focus of TriumphPay.

Mastercard Names 16 Partners to Its Real-Time Digital Payments Program

The Mastercard Send Partner Program is designed to help banks, FinTech providers and system integrators bring real-time digital payments to their customers, and Mastercard has chosen 16 companies to participate, including Adyen, AptPay, Checkout.com, Cognizant, Fenige, Green Dot, Ingo Money, KyckGlobal, Opentech, OpenText, Oracle, PayPal, Stripe, TabaPay, Transcard and Verestro.

FinTech PayHop’s $2.2M Seed Will Help Scale Business

Brazilian startup PayHop is using its seed funding round of $2.2 million to build out its FinTech business, helping retailers use credit card receivables as collateral for loans. The round was led by Serasa Experian’s investment arm, with participation by Domo Invest and Citrino Gestão. PayHop came about following a change by the Central Bank of Brazil’s adoption of a new regulation in June that allowed for the registration, negotiation and trading of card receivables. The new law registers all card transactions in a central office that certifies the receivables as legitimate.