Brad Hyett, CEO of phos

Brad Hyett is the CEO of phos, the leading software point of sale (SoftPoS) business which enables legacy technology providers and financial institutions to quickly bring ‘Tap to Pay’ solutions to market.

As one of the first payment leaders to recognise the potential of SoftPos technology - which allows merchants to turn their smartphone or tablet into a contactless payment terminal - Brad established phos as the market leader in Europe and successfully closed its acquisition by Ingenico, the global leader in payment acceptance solutions in 2023. Prior to joining phos, Brad was the MD Europe at BlueSnap, a market leading global payment solution for B2B and B2C businesses, where he spearheaded the company’s expansion into Europe. His experience also includes opening the UK division of SlimPay, a direct debit specialist and delivering on the new business strategy for The Logic Group, a Barclaycard company, across Europe.

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What is the Node Sale?

The Node Sale offers an exclusive opportunity for users to purchase node licenses and become integral parts of the Wirex Pay network. Nodes are essential components of the blockchain, responsible for validating transactions and maintaining the network’s security and integrity. By purchasing a node license, users can actively contribute to the network’s operation and governance.

Why Launch a Node Sale?

Wirex Pay is dedicated to decentralizing payment and settlement infrastructure using cutting-edge ZK technology. The mission is to build a truly decentralized network where everyone can participate in running and governing the network nodes. This collaborative approach aims to shape the future of global payments together.

Node Sale and Wirex Pay

The Node Sale will commence ahead of the Wirex Pay mainnet launch, which is planned for June. Users can join a waiting list to secure their node license allocation. Key details include:

• Total Amount of Node Licenses: 100,000
• Node Rewards: 20% of the total token supply is allocated to node operators and up to 40% of transactional revenue.
• Node Price Mechanism: The sale will feature 40 tiers, with the price increasing at each tier.

Benefits of Running a Node

Participants in the Node Sale will enjoy numerous benefits, including:

• Ongoing Node Rewards: Earn continuous rewards from operating nodes.
• Potential Additional Airdrops: Node ownership may offer opportunities for additional airdrops.
• Governance Rights: Gain influence in network decisions through governance rights.
• Ownership Proof: Each Node License is implemented as an NFT (Non-Fungible Token), providing verifiable proof of ownership.
• Tradeable NFTs: Node License NFTs can be traded or sold on secondary markets.
• Democratized Network: NFT ownership democratizes the network, allowing for individual ownership, operation, and profit-making from nodes.

Flexible Node Operation

Users have multiple options for running their nodes:

• Self-operation: Run the node independently.
• Gateway Node as a Service Provider: Utilize the services of Gateway to manage node operations.
• Delegate Node: Delegate the node license to another operator.

Wirex Pay welcomes everyone to join this mission. By participating in the Node Sale, users become part of a groundbreaking movement to decentralize global payments and create a more inclusive and democratic financial future.

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These changes, particularly consumers’ use of digital wallets and online banking, are leading to increases in instant and faster payment use cases such as bill payment, mobile wallet funding and defunding, account-to-account transfers, and immediate payroll for employees.

“The growing demand for faster and instant payment services suggests that tools like the FedNow^® Service will continue to play a crucial role in helping financial institutions meet their customers’ needs,” said Mark Gould, chief payments executive for Federal Reserve Financial Services. “The strong growth we’re seeing in the FedNow Service, which has grown to over 700 participants since launching last summer, shows how financial institutions are stepping forward to meet this change in customer expectations.”

Overall, 86% of businesses and 74% of consumers said they used faster or instant payments in 2023, and most (74% of businesses and 79% of consumers) reported looking to their financial institution to provide these services.

“Workers can now get paid immediately, helping them avoid late fees and better meet a variety of obligations,” said Shonda Clay, executive vice president for Federal Reserve Financial Services. “At the same time, employers are seeing the benefit of improved employee satisfaction and retention as a result of same-day pay. This is an example of how investments in enhanced payment infrastructure are helping institutions and their technology partners innovate new services for their consumer and business customers.”

Other key findings from the surveys include:

• Younger consumers are leading the move to digital, faster and instant payments. More than half of Generation Z (ages 18-25) and millennials (26-41) now use digital wallets, and 80% of these younger consumers say it is important to be able to make payments by mobile device.
• One in four (25%) consumers are challenged by the slow speed of payments and prefer to have better options for instant money movement to help manage personal finances.
• Businesses are using faster/instant payments because it helps them reduce cost (48%) and provides flexibility to pay and be paid as customers prefer (39%). Additionally, 35% appreciate the 24/7 nature of instant payment services.
• Businesses say key use cases that benefit from instant payments include business-to-business (92%), business-to-person (71%) and account-to-account (40%). Many businesses also believe instant payments will be useful for digital wallet funding/defunding (50%) and earned wage access (25%).

Full reports of the corporate and consumer surveys can be found here: Business Research Brief (Off-site PDF), Consumer Research Brief (Off-site PDF). The surveys were conducted by Federal Reserve Financial Services, which also markets instant or faster payment services such as the FedNow Service and FedACH^® Services.

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The acquisition marks the next step in Paystand’s trajectory towards building an industry-wide decentralized finance (DeFi) network, once considered a pipe dream, capable of connecting buyers and suppliers at scale. This milestone, in combination with partnerships with NetSuite, Sage, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, as well as the acquisition of the payment platform Yaydoo in 2022, represents a culmination of multiple years of payment innovation. The company and platform have been recognized by Deloitte, Juniper Research, Inc. Magazine, and most recently the FT 500 List of Fastest Growing Companies in the Americas.

The combined Paystand platform empowers CFOs to drive profitable behaviors among employees, vendors, and customers. Paystand brings its blockchain-based smart payments platform that helps finance departments speed up time-to-cash, reduce DSO, automate AR, and eliminate transaction fees. Teampay brings the ability to automate AP and corporate expense controls, eliminating inefficiencies. The combined company will help CFOs see direct contributions to profitability with quicker revenue and greater payment savings.

The acquisition of Teampay comes at a time marked by stagnation in fintech activity. The overall tech industry laid off 191,000 workers last year and 32,500 so far this year, according to Crunchbase. Meanwhile, the best tech companies are growing market share and consolidating a broader set of services for their customers.

Paystand’s network of more than 800,000 companies with $10 billion in transactions—more than 1% of total U.S. account-to-account business payments—will be expanded by Teampay’s network of 250,000 companies, broadening the largest B2B payment network running on a commercial blockchain to more than 1 million business participants. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

“In a quiet fintech climate, this acquisition arrives with a bang,” said Jeremy Almond, Paystand CEO. “This brings zero-fee blockchain payment technology further into the heart of the traditional finance technology stack. Paystand can leverage its blockchain infrastructure to enhance Teampay’s impressive expense and AP management capabilities. The results will be game-changing – a truly next-gen, smart B2B payment network at scale that transforms the office of the CFO and brings radically better economics to businesses.”

The transaction was facilitated, in part, with financing provided by Stifel Venture Banking. Josh Dorsey, Managing Director at Stifel, emphasized the expansive growth opportunities within the B2B fintech sector. “The integration of Teampay into the Paystand ecosystem presents a compelling narrative for businesses aiming to adopt digital-first financial tools that enhance capital efficiency,” remarked Dorsey. “This acquisition represents a pivotal moment not only for Paystand and Teampay but also for the entire B2B payments industry. We are thrilled to support and be part of this transformative journey.”

While the fintech sector has been a hot industry in prior years, many of those startups were still built on legacy bank services, which simply mask the antiquated payment infrastructure that burdens businesses with high fees, intermediaries, and delays. This unique combination of Paystand’s strengths in payments and cash management with Teampay’s industry-leading approach to expense and AP management will leverage the blockchain to sidestep existing payment rails.

“To realize our vision of a truly decentralized financial system, it is key that we not only are able to facilitate receiving payments but impact the payable side of those transactions as well,” said Almond. “In time, we are helping our users, and the industry as a whole, to lessen reliance on antiquated money movement methods.”

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The MOU will be signed tomorrow at Money 20/20 Asia in Bangkok by Nium’s Executive Vice President and General Manager for the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions, Anupam Pahuja. The strategic collaboration demonstrates Nium’s commitment to modernizing the world’s cross-border payments infrastructure, bringing it into the real-time era.

Under the leadership of Pahuja, who joined the company in 2023, Nium has expanded significantly in the region. Today Nium announced that its partner, Jeonbuk Bank in Korea, has gone live with its real-time remittance service, enabling the bank to serve a growing number of immigrant clients better.

In Thailand, Nium has proven to be the gold standard for cross-border payments, its platform powers four of the country’s premier banks: Kasikorn Bank, Krungsri (Bank of Ayudhya), Krungthai Bank, and Siam Commercial Bank. These partnerships further underscore Nium’s commitment to delivering innovative financial services and fostering long-term relationships with key industry players.

“Nium’s growth in APAC reflects our dedication to transforming the global financial landscape,” said Anupam Pahuja, Regional Executive Vice President of APAC & MEA. “By partnering with leading institutions like Artajasa and JB Bank, we aim to help businesses accelerate their growth across the region with secure, efficient, and innovative financial solutions.”

“As an institution that has experience in providing solutions for various digital payment services in Indonesia, we certainly welcome the strategic collaboration established between Nium and Artajasa to expand cross-border payments, while encouraging digital penetration in Indonesia, regionally and globally. This collaboration will certainly further strengthen our commitment to providing integrated, easy, and secure payment solutions to answer customer needs,” explained Heru Perwito, Director of Business, Artajasa.

In addition to growth in the region, Nium recently launched a new data-backed white paper that addresses cross-border B2B payment challenges in APAC, current initiatives, and the important role of intermediaries, alongside Asia’s leading payments, banking, and capital markets research firm, Kapronasia.

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INB was selected as a FedNow pilot participant in late 2020. On July 20, 2023, INB was one of 35 banks to go live on the first day FedNow hit the market. According to INB Vice President, Deposit Operations Jamie Singer, INB’s partnership with Computer Services Inc. (CSI), a leading provider of end-to-end fintech and regtech solutions, made this possible. CSI is also a pilot service provider.

Singer explains that customers will benefit from FedNow by seeing faster, real time, processing. “This will be the federal government’s fastest payment method to date with 24/7 ‘always on’ access. While the Fed has controls in place to ensure a slow roll-out, we anticipate FedNow will play a major role in moving money over the next five to 10 years.”

CSI notes in a news release that “instant payments will play a crucial role in how financial institutions attract and retain business.”

Singer continues: “This is the first payment modality that the Fed has created in nearly 50 years, and we pride ourselves on being at the forefront of this exciting time in our industry.”

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