FIS Purchases, Better.com Ousts Employees

FIS has acquired banking-as-a-service startup Bond for an undisclosed amount. This acquisition exemplifies the resilience of infrastructure in the fintech domain and a year of consolidation in which smaller players seek consolidation with bigger companies. FIS made one of the biggest deals in the payments world when it acquired WorldPay for about $43 billion in 2019. However, the deal did not bear fruit and FIS confirmed that it is spinning WorldPay off. In another significant report, better.com laid off its real estate team and discarded its real estate business unit after venturing heavily into real estate in 2022. The refinancing market dried up, and mortgage interest rates soared, ultimately negative impacting the unit. Affirm has become the first buy now, pay later player to be added to Amazon Pay. Apple is launching two significant changes to Apple Wallet that will allow users to set up recurring payments with Apple Cash and accept IDs stored in Apple Wallet. An analyst revealed that three UK neobanks, Monzo, Starling Bank, and Tandem Bank, all announced profits last week. Furthermore, forty-nine percent of small to medium-sized businesses claim that AI and machine learning will significantly change business finance operations for the foreseeable future, according to Capterra’s 2023 Accounting and AI Survey.