EMEA Daily: Mollie Launches Capital Division to Help SMBs Tap Funding

Today in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the Dutch FinTech Mollie has launched Mollie Capital, which will offer loans  of up to 250,000 euros ($240,500) to eligible SMB customers. Meanwhile, shares in the Italian payment provider Nexi rose as the firm projected above-expedited growth in the next three years.

ECB’s Panetta: Wholesale CBDC Infrastructure Should Evolve to Meet Needs

Fabio Panetta, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB), made a speech in which he touts the opportunity for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) to enhance payments.

Referring to a need to “preserve – at all times – an anchor of stability for the monetary and payments systems,” Panetta said the ECB needs to make sure central bank money is always available, in both physical and digital forms.

He added that the ECB is looking into how the needs for wholesale settlement services could change and what new technologies could be used.

Mollie Launches Capital Division to Help SMBs Tap Funding

Dutch payment service provider Mollie is launching a capital division to make it easier for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to gain access to funding.

Mollie Capital is a fully integrated business financing service that provides cash advances of up to €250,000 ($240,500) to eligible SMB customers.

Everything is processed from the Mollie dashboard, and funds for approved loans are often available on the same day. Repayments are automatically deducted as a percentage of daily sales, plus a one-time fixed fee.

Market Responds Favorably to Nexi’s Better Than Expected Growth Forecast

Milan-based payment technology business Nexi announced in a webcast that it would increase profits more than markets expected over the next three years and generate around 2.8 billion euros ($2.7 billion) in excess cash.

Unveiling a strategic growth plan that was well-received by the stock market, the firm said it could use the additional cash for mergers and acquisitions if opportunities arose, return it to shareholders through dividends and buybacks or use it to cut debt.

Having not traded above 8.60 euros at all yesterday, Nexi shares hit a high of 9.07 euros during today’s webcast.

Nexi’s leadership made the case that the company had experienced a  positive effect of inflation on revenues without any erosion of profit margins.

As seen in a presentation that accompanied today’s event, Nexi has forecast average annual revenue growth of 9% between 2021 and 2025, to around €4.2 billion ($4.03 billion), with a 14% annual rise in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) over the same period.

Nordic PayTech Westpay Selects ACI Worldwide for eCommerce Solution

The Miami-headquartered FinTech ACI Worldwide, which develops real-time payments software, has announced that the Swedish payments firm Westpay AB, will integrate ACI Secure eCommerce into its payment solution for merchants.

Westpay AB counts leading retailers in the Nordics, including Axfood, KICKS and Elon, among its customers. Integrating ACI Secure eCommerce will help the FinTech process online payments and will support the company’s global growth strategy, as it looks to expand into other markets, including South Africa, today’s announcement stated.

ACI Secure eCommerce is a comprehensive payments orchestration platform that comprises an eCommerce payments gateway, fraud prevention capabilities and business intelligence tools.

Features of the platform include the ACI Mobile Commerce Software Development Kit (SDK), the ACI Smart Engage mobile engagement platform and ACI PayAfter, a BNPL tool that connects customers to more than 70 BNPL lenders.

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