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NewsBriefs

Following are excerpts from news stories recently posted under Breaking practice, known as showrooming or webrooming, initially
Industry News on our home page. For links to these and other full threatened to turn physical stores into warehouses, but
news stories, please visit www.greensheet.com/breakingnews. retailers fought back with price-matching; buy online,
php?flag=previous_breaking_news. pickup in store; and various omnichannel strategies.
However, cashierless technology platforms pose a new
threat to brick-and-mortar merchants, according to
Richard Crone, CEO at Crone Consulting LLC.

ETA/TSG: Electronic transactions on upward trend
The ETA/TSG U.S. Spending Snapshot, published Aug. 6,
2019, by the Electronic Transactions Association and The
Strawhecker Group, cited strong consumer spending
in the first quarter of 2019, particularly in the retail and
restaurant sectors. The bellwether report found year-over-
year electronic transaction growth continues unabated,
despite "political uncertainty, lower consumer confidence
and a higher overall personal savings rate," according to
Fiserv completes First Data acquisition Jared Drieling, senior director of business intelligence
at TSG. Drieling expects the upward trend in electronic
The $22 billion acquisition of leading payment processor payments to drive nationwide economic growth across all
First Data Corp. by financial technology giant Fiserv is regions.
complete, and Bank of America Merchant Services, which
has operated as a joint venture with First Data for decades, PayPal, MetLife, Village Capital
will strike out on its own in 2020. This would make BAMS launch Finance Forward
the sixth largest merchant acquirer in the United States,
absent any new mergers and acquisitions in the acquiring Village Capital, a global venture capital firm focused on
space, said Mercator Advisory Group's Raymond Pucci. helping fledgling businesses, joined with PayPal Holdings
Inc. and the MetLife Foundation to cultivate early-stage
Is 'Just Walk Out' the new showrooming? entrepreneurs. The joint program, called Finance Forward,
is rolling out in select regions in the United States, Latin
Mobile technology continues to challenge brick-and- America, Europe, Middle East and India. Its mission is to
mortar stores on multiple fronts, forcing retailers to adapt democratize the system by improving access to funding
to digital-first consumers. A March 2019 survey of 3,200 and education to startups everywhere. Finance Forward
Asian shoppers by Transcosmos Inc. found 62 percent of will provide participants with $25,000 to $75,000 through
respondents examine products in physical stores before grants and direct investments, funding millions of dollars
ordering them online. Retail analysts have noted the to program participants over the next five years.

FedNow: asset or liability
for private sector?
The Federal Reserve Board
stated it plans to develop
FedNow, a real-time payments
and settlement scheme. Federal
Reserve Board Governor Lael
Brainard called making and
receiving payments a basic
right for banks and individuals.
"FedNow will permit banks of
every size in every community
across the country to provide
real-time payments to their
customers," she said. The
initiative is receiving mixed
reviews from the private sector.
The National Taxpayers Union
suggested the program would
pose a conflict of interest for the
Federal Reserve.

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