It’s a time in which European and US finance communities traditionally head for the beach, but the past several weeks saw a flurry of M&A and other strategic moves in the payments sector. Vantiv, Worldpay, Klarna, JPMorgan Chase, Adyen, MasterCard, and Vocalink all made the headlines.

In light of a recent spike of strategic activity in FinTech, merchants, payment tech firms, and their industry partners all need to reevaluate their payments strategies. The payments landscape has fundamentally changed, and more announcements are likely in the near future. When it comes to payment management, most organizations are under-resourced, ill-prepared strategically, and operationally-challenged. Recent events (and those that are potentially on the horizon) should be a wake-up call for merchants and  technology and services providers to dedicate more focus and capital to the payments space.

Key events reviewed in this research note:

  • Vantiv bids $10 billion for Worldpay
  • Klarna gets a banking license
  • Adyen gets a banking license
  • MasterCard completes acquisition of Vocalink