PYMNTS
JULY 13, 2019
In this age of live multi-player online gaming, and virtual reality, and all things digital, it can be easy to think of board games as an artifact of the analog world. No doubt many households have a collection of board games in the closet or basement, but so many of them do nothing so much as collect dust, perhaps pulled out during the holidays after the presents are opened and the kids are getting fidgety.
PYMNTS
JULY 8, 2019
The good old days of a two-year product development cycle are pretty much over. These days, no matter how creative, innovative and disruptive an idea a financial services player may have, the reality is they don’t have a lot of time to sit around developing it. “Speed to market is critical, more so today than it has ever been in history. In a couple of months, your great idea will have two or three competitors,” Joseph DeRosa, executive vice president of global sales at i2c , told PYMNTS in a re
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PYMNTS
JULY 1, 2019
The rise of the global economy and the demand for swift and secure cross-border payments is driving the development of more efficient infrastructures, and spurring financial institutions (FIs) to experiment with emerging tech. According to the new Smarter Payments Tracker , cross-border business-to-business (B2B) payments generated approximately $125 billion in revenue last year, a figure that continues to grow as the economy becomes more global.
PYMNTS
JULY 5, 2019
It’s been a little over two weeks since we all got our first look at Libra and Calibra. No doubt there will be countless news stories to come, and opinions on why it will or will not fly. Here are the things I will be watching for over the coming months, things that I think provide a useful framework for understanding how Libra and Calibra’s future takes shape: How many of the 28 Founding Association Members will pony up $10 million to remain members.
Speaker: Danny Gassaway and Wayne Richards
Finance leaders are prioritizing efficiency and digital transformation, yet many hesitate to automate due to uncertainty. Without a clear understanding of its impact, organizations risk falling behind competitors who are leveraging automation to drive productivity and cost savings. Join Wayne Richards and Danny Gassaway from AvidXchange for a practical guide on bringing accounts payable (AP) automation to your organization.
PYMNTS
JULY 7, 2019
Are new bitcoin rules coming? According to The Wall Street Journal , “the Internal Revenue Service is expected to update its 2014 guidance on cryptocurrencies in coming weeks, following an April request from a bipartisan group of 20 lawmakers. It is part of a broader push to boost the nascent cryptocurrency industry.” Not only that, but the newspaper said the U.S.
PYMNTS
JULY 8, 2019
Many traditional banking institutions and governments have shown skepticism, silence and resistance to Facebook’s proposed cryptocurrency Libra, according to reports. . Though the currency could potentially alter the financial landscape for good, many banks have simply not responded to the issue. “We’re still learning what it is and trying to work out where we stand on it — are we an opponent, partner or do we ignore?
Accountant Advocate brings together the best content for small business accounting professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
PYMNTS
JULY 8, 2019
In the pre-digital age of financial services, AML/KYC was a very slow process. The government would put out their lists of sanctioned entities – hostile governments, drug kingpins, organized crime organizations and affiliates, etc. – and compliance teams would manually check onboarding customers to make sure their records were clear. The system has always had its flaws, noted Alain Meier, CEO of Cognito – but in a pre-digital banking world where onboarding was a multi-day process, it wasn’t comp
PYMNTS
JULY 26, 2019
Despite some hiccups along the way with Goldman Sachs, the Apple credit card is on track for an August release, according to a report by Bloomberg. The collaboration between the two companies was sometimes tense and the stakes were high if it wasn’t successful. The Apple Card could be launched as early as the second half of August, which would meet its originally scheduled date for release when the card was announced in March.
PYMNTS
JULY 30, 2019
Global payments revenues are at an all-time high, and experts predict that they could even climb to be a $2 trillion industry by 2020. Cross-border payment revenues currently account for approximately $200 billion, a significant slice of the payments pie. Currently, there are 0.7 international transactions per capita every year, up from 0.5 in 2014.
PYMNTS
JULY 24, 2019
To reinforce the Federal Reserve’s authority to create a real-time payments system and mandate that the Fed brings about its own process, two U.S. representatives and two U.S. senators have introduced the Payment Modernization Act of 2019. The legislation was brought forward by Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Congressman Jesús “Chuy” García (D-IL), according to an announcement.
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It's the time of year to give our close process some TLC. Join us in this one hour webinar where we discuss how to adopt leading practices and infuse technology into the month-end close process to improve our experience and increase our productivity during month-end and quarter-end close. Learning Objectives: This course's objective is to understand how the month-end close can be improved with automation and adoption of leading practices.
PYMNTS
JULY 11, 2019
In a first-ever congressional hearing on marijuana law reform, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security convened July 10 to debate altering federal law around cannabis, CNBC reports. The consensus is that major cannabis reform is needed but disagreement still remains over what legislation should look like and the best strategy to advance it.
PYMNTS
JULY 2, 2019
Payment bottlenecks cause problems for all types of consumers and companies, not the least of which are small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). But a new offering from PayPal and Visa could help ease those frustrations and hassles. The two payments firms announced on Tuesday (July 2) the launch of PayPal’s Instant Transfer in Canada for SMBs and individual consumers.
PYMNTS
JULY 28, 2019
Jack Ma ’s MYbank is aiming to change the way China lends to small businesses. The 4-year-old bank uses real-time payments data and a risk-management system that analyzes more than 3,000 variables to allow borrowers to apply for a loan on a smartphone and receive cash almost instantly if approved. The whole process takes three minutes. So far MYbank has lent 2 trillion yuan ($290 billion) to nearly 16 million small companies, with a default rate of only about 1 percent.
PYMNTS
JULY 9, 2019
Retailers surely have more than enough to worry about these days. For one, the pace of innovation keeps speeding up – and that holds true for all types of retail niches, from apparel to grocery to others. Closely tied to that is the increasing demand from consumers for all types of fuller, interconnected, omnichannel experiences – shopping and transactions that not only combine offline and online channels, but are frictionless while also being fun and even memorable.
Speaker: Jennifer Hill
Payroll compliance is a cornerstone of business success, yet for small and midsize businesses, it’s becoming increasingly challenging to navigate the ever-evolving landscape of federal, state, and local regulations. Mistakes can lead to costly penalties and operational disruptions, making it essential to adopt advanced solutions that ensure accuracy and efficiency.
PYMNTS
JULY 15, 2019
More than $1.2 billion is estimated to have been lost to cryptocurrency scams, thefts and fraud in the first quarter of 2019, and cybercriminals and scammers are not the only ones putting digital asset users at risk. Canadian exchange QuadrigaCX ’s former CEO, Gerald Cotten, allegedly embezzled approximately $195 million of clients’ money, for example, and his recent death left the company without the passwords required to access most of its customers’ holdings.
PYMNTS
JULY 29, 2019
The common view about Africa – once found in recent PYMNTS coverage – is that the vast, varied and massively populated continent represents the next frontier for eCommerce. The middle-class and disposable incomes are growing in many African countries. Although consumers are still without formal access to traditional financial services, a growing number of them are closely tied to their mobiles phones, and all the commerce and payments opportunities offered by those devices.
PYMNTS
JULY 17, 2019
Visa said early Wednesday (July 17) that it has acquired Payworks , a payment gateway based in Germany focused on the point of sale (POS). The company said in a release that Payworks will be integrated into CyberSource ’s portfolio of services offered to clients. In its release, the company said that Payworks’ cloud-based solution for in-store payments processing will be brought together with the CyberSource digital payment management platform, which will create, in Visa’s words, “a fully integ
PYMNTS
JULY 26, 2019
A Japanese FinTech company is applying for a banking charter in the United States, according to a report by American Banker. The eCommerce firm Rakuten currently runs a shopper rewards program in the States, and said would file the necessary paperwork on Friday (July 26) with Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) and the state of Utah for an industrial loan company (ILC) charter.
Speaker: Sierre Lindgren
Fraud is a battle that every organization must face – it’s no longer a question of “if” but “when.” Every organization is a potential target for fraud, and the finance department is often the bullseye. From cleverly disguised emails to fraudulent payment requests, the tactics of cybercriminals are advancing rapidly. Drawing insights from real-world cases and industry expertise, we’ll explore the vulnerabilities in your processes and how to fortify them effectively.
PYMNTS
JULY 31, 2019
Visa and Billtrust are announcing a major new user for their Business Payments Network (BPN) as of today (July 31). JPMorgan has announced it will use the service to streamline the delivery of electronic B2B payments for its commercial card clients. Launched jointly last November by Visa and Billtrust, the BPN is an open buyer/supplier payments platform created, according to Billtrust CEO Flint Lane, as a “better highway to drive their payments on.
PYMNTS
JULY 31, 2019
Even in 2019, there persists this idea in the mainstream that invention stems from the epiphany and late-night toil of the solitary scientist. The image stems from about two or three centuries ago, when medieval superstitions were being seriously challenged by empirical thought, and the view has been reinforced countless times — even into the early 21st century if you look hard enough — by books, movies, TV shows and other methods of cultural communication.
PYMNTS
JULY 15, 2019
A group of companies in South Korea are collaborating on a blockchain network to be used for mobile authentication services, according to reports. . Samsung Electronics; banks KEB Hana Bank and Woori Bank ; telecom companies SK Telecom , LG Uplus and KT ; and Koscom , an IT service subsidiary from the Korea Exchange, are all part of the group. The companies want to let users protect their own data with the service, which will also allow people to save information from institutions as well as oth
PYMNTS
JULY 22, 2019
Sometimes, when an idea – especially one that has long stewed in popular imagination – makes serious and well-funded moves toward becoming reality, the excitement becomes almost irresistible, and the idea takes on a sense of immediacy and inevitability. That’s been the case over the past year or so for self-driving cars. Sure, skepticism about the coming age of autonomous transportation was always out there.
Speaker: Debra L. Robinson
CPAs know the drill: taxes, compliance, rinse, repeat. But what about the sneaky cash flow that’s quietly messing with your organization’s success? It’s time to step into the spotlight and expose the “dirty little secrets” of cash flow to fuel strategic growth. By upskilling your accounting practices and shifting focus from tax compliance to the strategic movement of money, you can transform your role from reactive accountant to proactive financial strategist.
PYMNTS
JULY 29, 2019
A company called Glint Pay has launched a debit card that’s backed by gold instead of currency, according to a report in The Denver Post. The company is London-based, and its U.S. office is in Boulder, Colorado. The card was released in the U.S. on Monday (July 29). Glint Pay was started by entrepreneur Jason Cozens. “We want gold to be considered like any other currency,” Cozens said.
PYMNTS
JULY 9, 2019
The questions that seem simplest tend to be the most complicated. The answers to such questions also usually end up having more significance than the answers to other inquiries. Excuse the detour into pop philosophy or Jedi teachings, but that is the case when it comes to the question “Who are you?” Those three words strike at the heart of identity, and mean so very much when it comes to the efficient operation of the global digital economy and its continuing growth, whether via retail, payments
PYMNTS
JULY 30, 2019
FinTech startup Flutterwave is teaming up with Alipay to offer digital payments between Alipay and African merchants. Founded in Nigeria, Flutterwave is a a payments API that makes it easier for banks and businesses to process payments across Africa. “We’ve managed to connect African countries…to each other, so it was about time we connected Africa to the world.
PYMNTS
JULY 31, 2019
American Express has announced that it plans to acquire acompay, a digital payment automation platform, from ACOM Solutions. Acompay, which helps business customers make supplier payments, manage business spending, and improve cash flow, “will be the newest addition to a series of B2B payment collaborations, strengthening our accounts payable automation capabilities and equipping our customers with the tools they need to improve the way they process and settle supplier payments,” Anna Marr
Speaker: Aaron Berson
Managing spend is more than a cost cutting exercise – it's a pathway to smarter decisions that unlock efficiency and drive growth. By understanding and refining the spending process, financial leaders can empower their organizations to achieve more with less. Explore the art of balancing financial control with operational growth. From uncovering hidden inefficiencies to designing workflows that scale your business, we’ll share strategies to align your organization’s spending with its strategic g
PYMNTS
JULY 31, 2019
Mastercard is collaborating with Bahrain’s Electronic Network for Financial Transactions ( BENEFIT ) to develop a blockchain-powered B2B payments solution, according to a press release Tuesday (July 30). Together, the firms are developing a platform to enable faster, more secure cross-border corporate payments that would allow companies to more seamlessly move funds to beneficiaries and banks to directly share payment data with each other without the need for intermediaries.
PYMNTS
JULY 8, 2019
In B2B commerce’s pursuit of the “Amazon-like” experience, both buyers and vendors have quickly discovered that business-to-business cannot take the same path that the business-to-consumer market did. Navigating through a fragmented field of disparate platforms, systems and data requirements is among the largest challenges to B2B eCommerce adoption today.
PYMNTS
JULY 30, 2019
In the art and science of reaching a consumer, some things never change. The gold standard of marketing is, was and ever shall be the same: Put the right product in front of the right consumer at the right time. Though much has changed in how that is done, that basic tenant remains the same. “Digital has created a really interesting opportunity to engage the customer throughout their journey and make it possible to use the services that will help them have a better experience all around,” Franci
PYMNTS
JULY 29, 2019
There are all kinds of skin care startups on the market that promise to deliver some kind of epidermal miracle, particularly on one’s face. Sometimes the secret is in the ingredient list, such as collagen that will fill in the wrinkles. Other times the magic is in the routine — K Beauty regimens, for example, aren’t just about using the right products, but using a long list of the right product in the right order multiple times a day.
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Bleisure travel — where employees combine work and leisure — has been around since the advent of corporate travel and is here to stay. Successful bleisure policies strike a balance between employee preferences and company goals — workers report a 64% improvement in work-life balance, while companies benefit from reduced travel costs and increased workforce innovation.
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