Payment Industry Analysis

Last week, the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced they are planning to change the way payment companies can market their currency and "bank-like" services.

July saw three significant B2B investments in the international payments space: Airwallex (liquidity & rails), Flywire (processing international payments for healthcare, education and business), and Transfermate (business payments and ERP integrations)

US public company Euronet, worth over $4bn, owns three prime brands in the money transfer space. Ria (focused on remittances), HiFX & XE (focused on international payments). Yesterday, Euronet announced their 2018 Q2 results.

As tariffs are meant to discourage international trade, a natural result of tariffs will be less international payments. International payment companies should plan on payments slowing down, and begin exploring alternative customers and industries that escaped tariffs.

The fastest growing companies in the money transfer space, such as Revolut and TransferWise, have highly viral products. How do you measure how viral a product is? NPS.

PayPal's brand awareness is similar to major banks. It has a share of wallet in many, many businesses and this will only increase as they expand their credit and early payment product sets. And while the company's international focus is currently centered around the UK, Europe, Australia, and Canada we expect further expansion to follow.

PayPal buys mass payments specialist Hyperwallet. Research on Payoneer, Tipalti, Tradeshift and other companies.

Can Revolut make enough money per customer to take a meaningful enough share of wallet to really play with the big banks?

The challenger bank landscape is beginning to shake out as each bank finds its market position. All are in heavy development and acquisition mode, fueled by hundreds of millions of dollars of fundraising.

Starling Bank founder and CEO, Anne Boden, was ahead of the curve. She spent more than a few years at big banks - she forged an entire career there before moving on to found Starling Bank in 2014.

I've recently attended Money20/20 Europe in Amsterdam, uncovering the latest innovations in international payments and discussing the state of the industry. Cross-border payments remains one of the most complex parts of the industry.

A look at patterns of employee growth (and decline) in international payments. Also - Starling Bank breaks up with Transferwise

International payments company OFX recently announced the launch of their Global Currency Account for Ecommerce Marketplace sellers. This latest multi-currency product launch shows the ongoing evolution of the industry.

This week, our CEO, Daniel Webber, had the pleasure of sitting down with new RationalFX CEO, Chris Humphrey. Many topics were covered - from technology to steady expansion of a brand. What struck us as most interesting about the conversation with Chris?

Last week Revolut announced they have reached Unicorn status with a $1.7bn dollar valuation. They have now joined the ranks of Transferwise as one of the fastest growing international payments companies and Finablr (the newly combined UAE Exchange & Travelex) in the billion dollar club.

Launching the products, getting licensed - these both take time but are not giant barriers. Building a trusted brand to go alongside those products is the difference maker.