Consumers Forego Cash for Digitized Payment Solutions

NEW YORK, May 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The way consumers pay for their purchases has shifted from traditional, physical money to digital payments and transactions. Now, the digital payment technology is becoming increasingly popular because of its convenience and security. By 2019, it is expected that 2.1 billion consumers will have used some sort of digital wallet, according to Braintree's 2018 Global Payments Report. Moreover, the report suggests that digital currencies are also expected to overtake credit and debit cards and become the most popular e-commerce payment method as consumers are opting to choose digital payment platforms because they can send or receive transactions immediately through their mobile devices. In a survey with more than 2,000 Americans, the U.S. Bank National Association revealed that 50% of the respondents said they carry cash with them less than half the times they are out. Furthermore, the respondents said when they do bring cash, they typically carry less than USD 50.00 on hand while almost half of the group said they carry less than USD 20.00. Even though millennials are primarily driving the digital payments market, the industry has impacted many adults. The Pew Research Center discovered that about one-third, or 34%, of adults under the age of 50 make no purchases in a typical week using cash. As digital payments become more popular, many companies such as retailers and online businesses are working towards integrating a digital payment platform. According to data compiled by Mordor Intelligence, the global digital payments market was valued at USD 3.41 Trillion in 2018. By 2024, the market is projected to reach USD 7.64 Trillion, witnessing a CAGR of 13.7% during the forecast period from 2019 to 2024. Glance Technologies Inc. (OTC: GLNNF) (CSE: GET), HSBC Holdings plc (NYSE: HSBC), eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY), First Data Corporation (NYSE: FDC), PagSeguro Digital Ltd. (NYSE: PAGS)

The digital payment industry owes its robust proliferation to the internet as consumers can access their bank accounts or wallets through their provider's webpage or a mobile app. As of March 2019, 4.38 billion people around the world have access to the internet. However, the biggest concern over digitalization is the possibility of a cyber-attack, and it has even led government agencies to implement regulations in order to prevent such attacks. For instance, two new regulations related to cybersecurity, the European Union's General Data Protection and New York Department of Financial Services, are already in place. Now, payment solution providers are focused on developing faster platforms while increasing their security software within the system for their consumers. "The incredible consumer response to digital and mobile banking solutions is changing the entire industry and diminishing the historic use of cash," said Gareth Gaston, Executive Vice President of Omnichannel at U.S. Bank, "ATM withdrawals and branch visits are slowly declining, while mobile transactions are increasing dramatically year over year. It shows that the broad availability of free, easy-to-use and fast-acting technology is supplanting the need for cash."

Glance Technologies Inc. (OTCQB: GLNNF) (CSE: GET) is also listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the ticker (CSE: GET). Earlier this week, the Company announced that it has, "amended and completed its previously announced transaction with Fobisuite Technologies Inc. and entered into a joint venture with Kinect Technology Inc. ("Kinect").

Amended and Restated Agreement - Glance previously announced an agreement with Fobisuite which included the grant of a license from Glance and Fobisuite to a newly-created company Fobi Pay Technologies Inc. ("Fobi Pay"). The terms of that agreement were amended to substitute a new entity, Converge MobiSolutions Inc. ("Converge"), for Fobi Pay. As part of the amended agreement, Glance has entered into a license and distribution agreement with Converge pursuant to which Converge has the right to sell Glance's technology. Converge has also entered into a separate license and distribution agreement pursuant to which it has the right to sell certain other technology that has been licensed to Kinect. As explained further below, Converge will be focused on marketing and selling technology to certain types of merchants such as casinos, hotels, restaurants and nightclubs and will target certain geographies including Las Vegas. Glance owns 49% of the common shares of Converge and Kinect owns the remaining 51% of Converge.

Fobisuite Transaction - Pursuant to the terms of the agreement with Fobisuite, Fobisuite has granted Glance a non-exclusive licence to use Fobisuite's technology which allows for the digitization of receipts for data collection and the ability to customize and append receipts with advertisements, deals and coupons for merchants in the hospitality industry.

'Fobisuite's technology platform will allow us to bypass traditional integrations with POS systems to access order & payment information, especially improving our offering to both consumers and merchants in situations where integrations may not be feasible,' says Glance CEO Desmond Griffin, 'Additionally, this opens up further revenue opportunities from real-time targeted consumer advertising and increased data analytics. We believe this is complementary to our current Glance Pay platform and are excited to begin implementing this technology.'

The following are the material terms of the agreement between Glance and Fobisuite:

• Fobisuite has granted Glance a non-exclusive licence that will be for an initial term of ten years with perpetual subsequent one-year renewal terms. This device allows for the digitization of receipts for data collection and the ability to customize and append receipts with advertisements, deals and coupons for merchants in the hospitality industry.
• The remaining $250,000 and the 250,000 shares of Glance were released from escrow to Fobisuite on closing of the transaction.
• Glance has also entered into a marketing and business development agreement with Rob Anson, CEO of Fobisuite to grow the current Glance distribution network by making introductions to Fobisuite's current technology partners. Pursuant to this agreement, Mr. Anson was granted incentive stock options. The stock options vest upon the achievement of certain performance business development milestones and are subject to the terms of the company's stock option plan and regulatory approval.

Joint Venture with Kinect - Glance has also entered into a joint venture with Kinect to form Converge and granted it a license to sell Glance's products. Converge will initially be focused on selling Glance's products in destination cities around the world, commencing in Las Vegas and Hawaii, with an aim to increase market share in APAC Region. Glance will own 20,000,000 shares in Converge and Kinect will own 20,500,000 shares.

'We have a vision for digitally transforming how cities and commerce intersect as we aim to bring together partners that share our passion for advanced digital technology, smart living, and connectivity in the community with tech-enabled, human-centric services to transform the physical world,' says Kinect's CEO, Reo Kobayashi, 'We believe that collaborative efforts that work towards embracing technology and embedding it in the very infrastructure of cities is at the core of improving city experiences.'

Glance has also entered into an advisory agreement with Reo Kobayashi, CEO of Kinect, pursuant to which Mr. Kobayashi has been granted incentive stock options to purchase common shares of Glance.

About Glance Technologies Inc: Glance Technologies is the owner of Glance Pay and Glance PayMe, a pair of complementary smartphone payment applications that enable merchants to provide their customers with quick secure payments, digital rewards, and better experiences. Glance offers targeted in-app marketing, geo-targeted digital coupons, customer feedback, in-merchant messaging, custom rewards programs, digital receipts, and digital deals."

HSBC Holdings plc (NYSE: HSBC), the parent company of the HSBC Group, is headquartered in London. Recently, HSBC settled more than three million FX transactions and made more than 150,000 payments worth USD 250 Billion using distributed ledger technology (DLT). This solution, called HSBC FX Everywhere, has been used for the past year to orchestrate payments across HSBC's internal balance sheets, creating significant efficiencies and opportunities. Using a shared permission ledger, which provides singularity, transparency and immutability, it transforms the process around intra-company foreign exchange activity, automating several manual procedures and reducing reliance on external settlement networks. Key benefits include: Singularity, transparency and immutability. A shared, single version of the truth of intra-company trades, from execution through to settlement, which reduces risk of discrepancy and delay; Payments orchestration. Confirmation and settlement is automated by matching and netting transactions, which reduces costs and reliance on external settlement networks; Balance sheet optimization. A consolidated, global view of forward cash flows, and certainty of funds throughout the funding cycle, supports greater balance sheet optimization. Richard Bibbey, Interim Global Head of FX & Commodities at HSBC, said: "The global, cross-border nature of HSBC and its clients sees us conducting thousands of foreign exchange transactions within the bank, across multiple balance sheets, in dozens of countries. HSBC FX Everywhere uses distributed ledger technology to drastically increase the efficiency of these internal flows."

eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) announced its intent to intermediate, or manage, the payments flow on its platform to simplify the end-to-end experience for buyers and sellers. The company had recently begun managing payments on its Marketplace platform in the US. The goal of managed payments is to drive significant benefits and efficiencies for eBay's hundreds of millions of global customers. In the new managed payments experience, Sellers will benefit from a simplified pricing structure, more predictable access to their funds, and better visibility into sales and payouts. eBay will continue to expand managed payments to buyers and sellers over time and expects to have transitioned a majority of its Marketplace customers to its new payments experience in 2021. "The introduction of eBay's new payments experience in the US marks a significant milestone in our managed payments journey," said Steve Fisher, Senior Vice President of Payments at eBay. "In less than eight months since announcing our initiative, we've moved rapidly to build our back-end payments platform, engage thoughtfully with our seller community to solicit their input and line up new forms of payment – all of which has led to the introduction of managed payments. Looking ahead to 2019, we will expand our new experience to more buyers and sellers in the US and begin rolling out our new payments experience outside the US."  

First Data Corporation (NYSE: FDC) is a global leader in commerce-enabling technology, serving approximately six million business locations and 4,000 financial institutions in more than 100 countries around the world. First Data and Alipay, the world's leading digital payment platform operated by Ant Financial Services Group, recently announced an expanded partnership that adds 35,000 merchants to the growing roster of businesses accepting Alipay in store. The expansion allows U.S. merchants the ability to offer Alipay's 600 million registered Chinese users the same, convenient payment experience they enjoy at home while traveling in the United States. The expanded partnership follows a May 2017 announcement unveiling First Data's plans to integrate Alipay at the point-of-sale across four million U.S. merchant locations. The ongoing rollout includes merchants using First Data's Clover suite of solutions. Clover, a leading point of sale platform, serves the needs of merchants ranging from food trucks and small retailers to regional coffee houses and even the largest sports stadiums. Alipay enablement is one of many Clover features that helps merchants across North America grow their businesses. "We are thrilled with the significant interest we've seen from merchants who want to offer Alipay at the point-of-sale," said Nandan Sheth, General Manager, Global Debit Solutions, First Data. "As our partnership continues to mature, we are excited to roll out Alipay on an even larger scale. Businesses that offer Alipay are able to benefit from the growing number of Chinese travelers coming to the U.S. by offering a frictionless payment experience that transcends country, currency and language barriers."

PagSeguro Digital Ltd. (NYSE: PAGS) is a disruptive provider of financial technology solutions focused primarily on micromerchants, small companies and medium-sized companies in Brazil. PagSeguro Digital Ltd. recently announced the launch of its new device, Moderninha Smart, a modern, portable and fully integrated AndroidTM based point-of-sale that works seamlessly with any business. Moderninha Smart offers a full integration of hardware, PAGS' Apps and its fast and secure payments network. By combining all the high-end functionalities such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 4G connections, as well NFC and QR Code acceptance, Moderninha Smart offers a robust managed payment experience. Moderninha Smart was built for simplicity and ease of use, it requires no setup and integrates features like product catalog, inventory management, installment calculator, bank slips (boleto) issuing and payment links. The integration of software and hardware helps merchants to be more productive and serve clients better. PAGS point-of-sale software also gives merchants the ability to run their business efficiently by managing their PAGS´s account, including bill payment, mobile top-up, balance transfer among other functionalities available in our ecosystem.

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