Dive Brief:
- Payments processor Fiserv is partnering with Palo Alto, California-based fintech MovoCash to enable that young company’s mobile banking and payment tools, Brookfield, Wisconsin-based Fiserv said in a press release Monday.
- Separately, Fiserv is also striking up a tie with the European beverage and food vending company Selecta Group to enable the Swiss company’s machines to accept digital payments, the companies said in a press release today.
- Fiserv’s Carat business also inked a deal last week to allow its business customers to disburse payouts at scale to accounts at money transfer company PayPal and its mobile payment app unit Venmo last week, according to an Aug. 18 press release.
Dive Insight:
Fiserv is one of the largest payments processors worldwide, moving money and information for thousands of financial institutions and for millions of individuals and businesses, the company says. It has 1.4 billion accounts on file, works with nearly six million merchant locations and enables 100 million digital banking users, according to its web site.
The spate of new Fiserv relationships come at a time when San Francisco activist investment firm ValueAct Capital Management has gained a significant — approximately $1.2 billion — ownership stake in the company, according to a report from Bloomberg. The report said that ValueAct believes Fiserv’s Clover credit card business could be valued at $185 million by 2024.
Such activist investors will sometimes pressure companies to make certain strategic business decisions with respect to business units. No such pressure has been reported with respect to Fiserv at this time.
Fiserv’s new partnership with MovoCash will allow the fintech’s retail customers new digital money tools such as the use of Fiserv’s Accel debit payments network, access to ATM machines and debit card services, the release said. MovoCash says that its mobile banking services allow contactless payments throughout a transaction.
At Selecta Group, the new Fiserv connection will mean that customers at its coffee and food vending machines can use card and mobile app options for cash-free and contactless payments, the release said. The company provides beverages and food to some 10 million people in 16 countries through its machines, according to the release.
On the expanded alliance with PayPal and Venmo, Fiserv said the new tie there will enhance its business clients' marketing opportunities. “With the addition of payouts to PayPal and Venmo accounts via our Carat ecosystem, businesses can benefit from enhanced visibility of their brand via a logo, tagline or customized message in Venmo’s social payments platform,” Fiserv’s head of digital commerce, Nandan Sheth, said in the release.
