Latest news with #checks
Yahoo
19-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Deluxe pivots to digital and data
This story was originally published on Payments Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Payments Dive newsletter. Deluxe, known as the provider of paper checks, isn't counting on customers clinging to checks forever, but a pivot to faster-growing segments hasn't come quick enough to stem a revenue decline. While only about 2.5% of consumer payments are still made by check in the U.S., after years of decline, business and government are still dependent on checks. President Donald Trump is fueling the latest shift away from that inefficient paper product, mandating that federal government agencies toss aside the use of checks by the end of September. Minneapolis-based Deluxe understands the direction the payments industry is headed. The company is leaning into its non-paper enterprises, with payments processing; business-to-business payments services; and the sale of marketing data now accounting for two-thirds of its $2.1 billion in annual revenue, Deluxe CEO Barry McCarthy said in an interview this month. Meanwhile, the sale of checks drives just $700 million of income. 'We've been very, very clear that we are taking the company's legacy in paper payments to grow a large digital payments and data business,' McCarthy said. 'We are taking the resources, the relationships, the brand recognition, the trust we have on the paper payment side to build tremendous momentum on the digital payment side.' The 21st-century strategy appears to be working. The publicly-traded company doubled its net income last year to $52.9 million over 2023 on a revenue increase of 5.4% to $384 million, according to its annual filing in February with the Securities and Exchange Commission. McCarthy is pivoting Deluxe's focus after consolidated revenue for the company declined last year by 3.2%, 'due to the continuing secular decline in order volumes for checks, business forms, and some business accessories,' according to the annual filing. On the flip side, the company's fastest-growing business revolves around the trove of data it has collected from more than 100 sources, including its consumer customers over the years. That marketing business, based in New York, is growing at a 20%-plus clip annually. The data includes everything from information on divorces and car leases to births and elderly parents to business locations and new bank accounts. Then it sells that information to businesses focused on servicing consumers, such as property and casualty insurers, telecommunications companies and retailers. 'We know all of this information at massive scale, I think it's over a trillion unique pieces of data about small businesses and consumers in the United States,' McCarthy said. 'All of those businesses hire us to provide them a target list of who to go market to, and then we can deliver the marketing message all the way to that end customer.' To be sure, the data business is still the smallest of Deluxe's three non-check segments, accounting for 11% of revenue. The other two, including payments processing and business-to-business payments services, drive 18% and 14%, respectively, according to the SEC filing. In the processing business, Deluxe competes against the larger payments processors, such as Fiserv and Global Payments, by pitching itself as a more customized option, McCarthy said. The merchant acquiring services include managing credit card and debit card acceptance for small to mid-sized businesses. Clients include independent sales organizations, insurers, niche retailers and banks that resell the services, as well as government entities. The bigger rivals 'are so largescale, they have to do it one way and one way only,' McCarthy said of his larger competitors. 'If you want different settlement windows, you want different feature functionality, it's very hard for them.' McCarthy knows the processing business well because he spent 14 years at the processor First Data before it became Fiserv. After being appointed CEO of Deluxe in 2018, he focused the company's strategy, partly by divesting some entities that didn't fit with the other major parts of the business. The third non-check segment at Deluxe is its business-to-business division that offers accounts receivable and payable services to companies as they shift their payments processing away from paper-based methods. About '40% of those (business) payments are still made by paper check today, both inbound and outbound, so there is still a massive opportunity,' McCarthy asserted. Despite the Deluxe's efforts to move away from its more traditional manual services for businesses, more than half of the company's revenue, 57%, still comes from paper-based products, including promotional materials and business forms, according to its annual filing. McCarthy knows that Deluxe needs to do a better job of marketing its non-paper services if it wants to keep building its electronic payments business. 'We have marketing and sales work to do to get the story out,' he acknowledged. Recommended Reading Trump calls on federal gov't to banish paper checks Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Pennsylvanians to receive $9.2 million worth of checks; Here's why
(WHTM) – Thousands of Pennsylvanians will soon receive a piece of the $9.2 million worth of checks being sent by the State Treasury. The Pennsylvania Treasury says the second round of Pennsylvania Money Match checks are now arriving in the mail. These checks are funds that people who are owed up to $500 for unclaimed property, and recipients are being advised to cash them. More than 39,000 checks are being sent out in this second round, while an additional 40,000 letters notifying people of incoming checks will go out in August. 'It's exciting to see so many people getting money they didn't know they had. It's now important that people cash these checks,' said State Treasurer Stacy Garrity. 'We want everyone to know this is a real program and this is real money. Every dollar we return to Pennsylvania families is money they can use to buy groceries, fill up their cars with gas, or pay their rent or mortgage. This money belongs to them, not the state.' Unclaimed property includes dormant bank accounts, unclaimed checks, insurance policies, and tangible property that is currently being held by the State Treasury. You can check if you have unclaimed property on the State Treasury website. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Unpacking rumor that Trump is sending out $5K stimulus checks
According to a rumor that spread online in late May and early June 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump would be sending out $5,000 "stimulus" checks to Americans after his administration uncovered billions of dollars in "wasted money." The viral rumor likely stems from an investment firm CEO's proposal to send some taxpayers so-called "DOGE Dividend" checks. The original proposal for $5,000 checks was based on the assumption that DOGE would achieve $2 trillion in total savings, which is highly unlikely. Trump has previously floated the idea of a "DOGE Dividend," but there was no proof at the time of this writing that he would send $5,000 checks to Americans. Snopes reached out to the White House for clarity but has not received a response. In late May and early June 2025, a rumor on TikTok (archived) claimed that U.S. President Donald Trump was reportedly sending out $5,000 "stimulus" checks to Americans after his administration uncovered $50 billion in "wasted money." "Trump is going to be sending out five grand to everybody and this is because they uncovered $50 billion … of just wasted money," the TikTok video's narrator said. @todaynews919 #fyp #foryou #new #news ♬ original sound - todaynews919 The video's narrator later said the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency initiative allegedly proposed sending money it had "recovered" to the American people. The initiative, spearheaded by tech billionaire Elon Musk before his departure, works to slash government spending through layoffs and cuts to various federal programs. Though Trump has previously floated the idea of a "DOGE Dividend," there was no proof at the time of this writing that he would send $5,000 checks to Americans. Snopes reached out to the White House to ask if the president has any plans to send such checks and is awaiting a response. Since we were not able to definitively prove or disprove this rumor, we have not put a rating on this claim. The viral rumor likely stems from a proposal to send some taxpayers "DOGE Dividend" checks. Trump previously said he would consider such a plan, but his administration has not confirmed that it's sending any checks. The idea for DOGE Dividend checks was originally proposed by James Fishback, the founder and CEO of the investment firm Azoria Partners, in an X post (archived) shared on Feb. 18, 2025: Fishback's post also included a more in-depth proposal based on the assumption that DOGE would achieve $2 trillion in total savings. He suggested that the federal government take 20% of DOGE's presumed savings, or about $400 billion, and return it to approximately 79 million taxpaying households in the form of $5,000 tax refund checks called the DOGE Dividend. Under Fishback's plan, the government would send checks only to "households that will be net payers of federal income tax," meaning those that pay more money in taxes than they get back in tax credits or refunds. That means American households that do not owe federal income tax would not qualify for the proposed payments. In 2025, an estimated 40% of U.S. households will pay no federal individual income tax, according to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. Most of these households have lower incomes, with about 70% earning less than $75,000 and about 45% earning less than $40,000, the Tax Policy Center estimates. On the same day that Fishback shared his proposal for the $5,000 checks, Musk replied (archived), "Will check with the president." Trump quickly acknowledged the idea as he delivered remarks during a Saudi investors conference in Miami on Feb. 19, 2025. "There's even under consideration a new concept where we give 20% of the DOGE savings to American citizens and 20% goes to paying down debt, because the numbers are incredible, Elon," Trump said at the conference. A reporter also asked Trump about the plan as he flew back to Washington, D.C., aboard Air Force One that day. He said: I love it. A 20% dividend, so to speak, for the money that we're saving by going after the waste and fraud and abuse and all the other things that are happening, I think it's a great idea. The dividend checks would also give taxpayers "an incentive … to go out and report things to use when we can save money," Trump added. Several weeks later, Fishback spoke further about his proposal during a March 2025 podcast appearance. He said if DOGE didn't hit the $2 trillion in projected savings, the amount of money in the dividend checks should be adjusted. "This plan is not predestined to the $5,000 number. If the savings come in above or below that, the check will be reflected accordingly," Fishback said. "So again, if the savings are $1 trillion — which I think is awfully low — the check goes from $5,000 to $2,500." At a town hall in Wisconsin on March 30, 2025, Musk fielded questions about the proposal, ultimately putting the responsibility of approving tax refund checks on Congress and Trump. "It's somewhat up to the Congress and maybe the president … as to whether specific checks are cut," Musk said in response. A search of did not return any results for legislation proposing "DOGE Dividend" tax refund checks. Snopes also could not find any record of Trump sharing additional details about a plan for such checks since February 2025, and we are still awaiting a response from the White House. It's still unclear how much money DOGE might ultimately save. Musk said in October 2024 that he expected to cut "at least $2 trillion" but he later lowered that estimate to $1 trillion. However, both of those estimates were "wildly unrealistic," PolitiFact reported in June 2025. As of June 6, 2025, DOGE's online "wall of receipts" touted an estimated $180 billion in cuts, but analyses by PolitiFact (here and here) and The New York Times found that the online ledger was riddled with errors. X. Accessed 6 June 2025. "Who Will Pay No Federal Individual Income Tax in 2025?" Tax Policy Center, 4 June 2025, Accessed 6 June 2025. X. Accessed 6 June 2025. Palm Beach Post. "Full Donald Trump Speech at Miami FII Investment Summit Hosted by Saudi Public Investment Fund." YouTube, 19 Feb. 2025, Accessed 6 June 2025. 2025, Accessed 6 June 2025. David Lin. "Will You Get a $5,000 Check? "Doge Dividend" Explained | James Fishback." YouTube, 12 Mar. 2025, Accessed 6 June 2025. FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul. "LIVE | Elon Musk Holds Town Hall in Wisconsin." YouTube, 30 Mar. 2025, Accessed 6 June 2025. "Legislative Search Results." 2025, Accessed 6 June 2025. WFAA. "Elon Musk Full Speech at Trump Rally in Madison Square Garden (Oct. 27, 2024)." YouTube, 27 Oct. 2024, Accessed 15 Nov. 2024. X. Accessed 6 June 2025. Clarke, Amelia. "Yes, Musk Said He'd Ask Trump about $5K Checks for US Taxpayers Funded by DOGE Savings." Snopes, 21 Feb. 2025, Czopek, Madison, and Amy Sherman. "Trump and Musk Public Bickering Raises More DOGE Uncertainty." @Politifact, 5 June 2025, Accessed 6 June 2025. DOGE. "DOGE: Department of Government Efficiency." DOGE: Department of Government Efficiency, 2025, Accessed 6 June 2025. McCullough, Caleb. "Where Do DOGE's Reported Savings Come From?" @Politifact, 21 Feb. 2025, Fahrenthold, David A, and Jeremy Singer-Vine. "DOGE Is Far Short of Its Goal, and Still Overstating Its Progress." The New York Times, 13 Apr. 2025, Accessed 6 June 2025.
