A Recap of July's Payment News

💰🔏 Deal and performance updates

 Stripe buys Orum: expanding its capabilities in non-card payment processing

The purchase of Orum, an API first solution for bank payments, continues to expand and diversify Stripe’s solutions from traditional merchant acquiring into broader financial infrastructure.  With the Orum platform, Stripe will better support broader CFO and Treasury management use cases, particularly around accounts receivable, accounts payable, and liquidity management. Point to watch: With the ability to receive, reconcile and pay funds out across US payment rails such as FedNow, RTP, Same Day ACH, ACH, Stripe is challenging traditional banks on their corporate payment solutions, and is looking to underpin the next generation of corporate payment offerings which will be seamlessly integrated into existing workflows.     

Betting on AI potential in Office of the CFO software:  Xelix raises $160M, Ramp raises another $500M, Rydoo buys Semine

Xelix and Semine both provide AI solutions for Accounts Payable platforms, helping businesses to automate their AP function while reducing errors and fraud.  AP still remains a manual area in many businesses, and solutions can deliver positive ROI quickly.  In Rydoo’s case, they will merge Semine with their expense management platform, increasing overall value to customers and gaining visibility and relevance across a broader range of a client’s spend categories.  In the case of Ramp their focus is on corporate cards and expense management and the raise comes hot on the heels of their March fundraise.  They aim to rapidly expand their own AI capabilities, with autonomous agents managing expense management autonomously in the future.  Point to watch: Office of CFO software is strong growth area, with high opportunity to digitise workflows, and this is being accelerated by AI given the unstructured nature of data across this segment 

Corpay announced acquisition of Alpha FX, further consolidating x-border payment market

Corpay provides a cash bid for Alpha FX, valuing the business at £1.6B.  Alpha FX is a specialist provider of FX solutions and have seen strong growth in recent years.  They specialise in complex FX solutions and hedging strategies for corporates and private market industries such as funds management. Corpay has been expanding into the cross-border payments space, with previous acquisitions of AFEX and Cambridge Global Payments in Europe, but this acquisition provides Corpay with enhanced FX risk management capabilities to better challenge the banks in corporate FX.  Point to watch:  Ongoing consolidation in the FX / Cross-border payments space, as many FX specialists have been acquired or merged in recent years.

Worldline plans to divest Mobility and e-Transactional Services (MeTS) business to focus on core payments

Worldline and Magellan Partners announced they were in exclusive talks for the sale of the MeTS business for an EV of up to €410M.  The MeTS business provides technology delivery services, with focus on trusted data management, storage and identity validation services for government, health and public transport.  Point to watch:  After years of mergers and diversification of business, Worldline is following the trend of other large payment companies such as FIS / Worldpay, Global Payments, Nexi and becoming increasingly focused and specialised on their core area to ensure they are driving value to customers and growth

Trustly reports strong growth, driven by North America

Trustly reported on its 2024 results.  Its total payment value (TPV) grew to $87 billion in 2024 (up 54% on 2023), while net revenue to $239 million (up 32%), and adjusted EBITDA to $73.2 million (up 50%).  Overall, the volume growth is driven heavily by Trustly’s success entering in the North American market, as bank payments see further growth, driven in part by the digitisation opportunity and increasing growth in real-time payments.  Trustly’s Net Revenue margin declined (from 32bps to 27bps of TPV) reflecting lower average pricing as they expand but EBITDA margin was steady at ~8.5bps.  Point to watch: While Open Banking volumes struggle in Europe, Trustly is a leader in commercialising the opportunity and expansion in US is further fuelling its growth.

⚖️ Risk & Regulatory

FCA plans to regulate Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL)

The FCA has unveiled plans to regulate Deferred Payment Credit products, most notably interest-free Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL). Key proposals include mandatory affordability checks even on the smallest loans, support for customers in financial distress, and ability to escalate complaints to the Financial Ombudsman. Consultation closes 26 Sept 2025 ahead of rules taking effect in 2026. Point to watch: The DPC regime is explicitly designed to align with Consumer Duty, with expectations around product design, affordability, support for vulnerable customers, disclosure and promotion expectations. These standards will likely become the implicit benchmark across all unsecured consumer credit, even for already regulated products, and other regimes will be watching outcomes closely. It is possible that there may be a decline in borrowing volumes at firms that cannot put appropriate measures in place, and there is potential for M&A between BNPL firms with the strongest UK presence. 

Argentex enters into Administration:  the liquidity crunch from FX risk

After hitting a liquidity crunch back in May and receiving an emergency loan from IFX, this month Argentex appointed Administrators to the business and IFX have pulled out of the acquisition.  Point to watch: Argentex’s issues stemmed from the FX positions it took with banks on behalf of its clients.  As the FX rates moved, and the banks issued Argentex with margin calls, they were unable to collect the funds from their clients, leading to cash flow shortages.  Ultimately, this underscores the underlying credit risk that payment providers take on when they process transactions on behalf of their clients and presses home the need for strong underwriting and risk management to trade through volatile market events.

Paddle fined $5M for facilitating payments for scammers

The FTC fined Paddle, alleging that Paddle and its subsidiary processed payments for deceptive tech-support schemes that targeted U.S. consumers:  “The FTC will hold accountable payment companies that knowingly facilitate payments for scammers or look the other way when faced with red flags about their clients’ conduct.”  Point to watch:  Paddle provides a billing solution for SaaS companies, providing payments, tax and compliance solutions to its clients.  Paddle operates a “Merchant of Record” model, acting as the merchant, collecting payments on behalf of its clients (including recurring payments), and orchestrating payments in different markets.  While Paddle itself is unregulated in many markets, this demonstrates 3rd party distributors and agents (such as MOR) still need strong underwriting and effective ongoing monitoring of the merchants they are sponsoring, and the underlying acquirers need to ensure appropriate controls and monitoring is taking place on the end clients.

This is a wrap of global news coverage on the payments industry and does not necessary represent my view. This newsletter is in no shape or form related to my employer. Views expressed are my own.