November, 2018

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Deliverr Vying To Become ‘Uber’ Of Ground Shipping In eCommerce

PYMNTS

Before Michael Krakaris co-founded an online fulfillment platform for eCommerce merchants, he learned firsthand how companies could reinvent messy spaces with software. One of his first jobs was working for a company that created an application programming interface (API) to help businesses send text messages to their customers. That business solved a major pain point, he says, as companies used to have to make deals with the wireless carriers themselves to have that capability.

Gaming 89
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Venmo Payment Fraud Led To $40M In Losses

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Venmo , the digital money transfer service owned by PayPal , suffered payments fraud earlier in 2018 that played a role in the company posting losses that were higher than forecasted for the first quarter of this year. The Wall Street Journal , citing internal documents it reviewed, reported that for the first three months of 2018 Venmo had operating losses of around $40 million, which was close to 40 percent bigger than what the company had planned for.

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Australia Gets First Virtual Commercial Cards Via Mastercard, DiviPay

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Expense management company DiviPay is rolling out what it says is Australia’s first Mastercard virtual commercial card for corporate payers, and the first solution in the country that combines payments with expense management automation. Reports in Finder this week said DiviPay is launching its virtual card offering to help small and medium-sized companies (SMBs) automate their expense reporting and management processes.

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InComm Partners With Welcia To Grow Barcode Payments

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InComm , a global prepaid product and payment technology company, has announced a partnership with Welcia , Japan’s leading pharmacy chain, to launch four mobile barcode payment solutions in its stores. InComm will be integrating its point-of-sale payment technology directly with Welcia. “Simultaneously connecting these major mobile barcode payments with the largest pharmacy chain in Japan is an exciting opportunity for InComm and Welcia’s customers,” Takumaro Arai, vice president and general ma

Sales 84
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Less Stress, More Success: Accounting Best Practices & Processes for 2025

Speaker: Amanda Adams, Fractional CFO, CPA

Are you ready to elevate your accounting processes for 2025? 🚀 Join us for an exclusive webinar led by Amanda Adams, a seasoned fractional CFO and CPA passionate about transforming back-office operations for finance teams. This session will cover critical best practices and process improvements tailored specifically for accounting professionals.

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Cannabis Cos’ $4.7B In Cash-Based Taxes Overwhelm IRS

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The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is paying $1.7 million to a Virginia company to handle “large cash payments for processing cannabis federal taxes.”. According to Quartz , the U.S. government collected approximately $4.7 billion in taxes last year on nearly $13 billion in revenue from legal cannabis companies. Most of these companies were forced to pay their federal taxes in cash because about 70 percent of all legal cannabis businesses are unbanked.

Tax 83
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SWIFT Disconnects From Iran’s Banks

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Months of geopolitical spats that spanned Europe, the Middle East and the United States have seen payments infrastructure at the center of it all. This week SWIFT, the financial messaging service based in Belgium (and where the acronym stands for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Communications) said that it would suspend access for at least some Iranian banks.

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Sweden’s Cashless Drive Hits A Speed Bump

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In Sweden, the move to a cashless society has been marked by a quickened pace. Might there be speed bumps ahead, though? The New York Times said cash is being left by the wayside, in favor of digital payments, so quickly that the government is reportedly “recalculating the societal costs of a cash-free future.”. The reconsideration comes, according to the Times , as half of Sweden’s retailers have said they will stop accepting hard currency within the next few years.

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How Clandestina (Literally) Snuck Into The US Market

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Starting a new business is never easy, and new apparel lines are particularly challenging. There are many, many retailers and brands trying to outfit the world, and standing out in the crowd is difficult. But even on the already pitched startup terrain, apparel startup Clandestina, based in Havana, Cuba, had some unique troubles all its own. The brand became the first to launch a website for U.S. sales last month — and it is spinning up to take on its first-ever Christmas season.

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GoDaddy Highlights Small Business Cybersecurity Paradox

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Earlier this week, reports said two researchers from Bloomsberg University of Pennsylvania made their case for safe harbor rules and overall easing of regulatory penalties for small businesses hit by a cyberattack. Their argument, reports in the Wall Street Journal said, is that small businesses are held to the same standards as large corporates when they suffer a data breach — even if the small business is found to not be at fault.

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Real-Time Payments Driving Real-Time Liquidity: Deutsche Bank

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Corporate finance executives seem to be readying for real-time payments, preparing to adopt faster payment capabilities and bracing for changes to their cash flow management strategies as a result. A new report from Deutsche Bank said this industry path is guiding banks and corporates to a new destination: real-time treasury. Driven by a range of factors (including changes to intraday reporting requirements, open banking initiatives, longer clearing windows for real-time gross settlement (RTGS)

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Avoiding Lease Accounting Pitfalls in 2025: Lessons Learned from Spreadsheet Errors

Speaker: Abdi Ali, Sr. Lease Accounting Consultant

Join this insightful webinar with industry expert Abdi Ali, who will discuss the challenges that can arise from managing lease accounting with spreadsheets! He will share real-world examples of errors, compliance issues, and risks that may be present within your spreadsheets. Learn how these tools, while useful, can sometimes lead to inefficiencies that affect your time, resources, and peace of mind.

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The Bitcoin Bust And Its Ripple Effects

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It has not been a great week for the price of bitcoin, or really any cryptocurrency for that matter. The price of bitcoin has fallen and stayed below $6,000 for the last four days and no one’s predicting a rally anytime soon. The fall comes after a long and uncharacteristically uneventful lateral motion in the bitcoin market where it seemed $6,000 was the stable floor price of bitcoin.

Gaming 78
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Third-Party Data Breaches On The Rise In The U.S.

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Opus, the provider of global compliance and risk management solutions, announced Thursday (Nov. 15) the results of the third annual Ponemon Institute’s “Data Risk in the Third-Party Ecosystem” study, which found that 59 percent of companies surveyed said they have experienced a data breach caused by their vendors or third parties. In a press release announcing the results of the survey of more than 1,000 CISOs and other security and risk professionals across the U.S. and U.K., Opus said th

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Billtrust And Visa Launch B2B Payments Platform For Buyers And Suppliers

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Visa and Billtrust today (Nov. 5) announced the launch of the Billtrust Business Payments Network (BPN), an open buyer/supplier payments platform that Billtrust CEO Flint Lane said will do what other B2B payment platforms have struggled to do: put paper checks on the path to extinction by streamlining and digitizing payments between businesses — and doing it at scale.

B2B 78
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How Open Banking Will Test Banks’ Data Security Strategies

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Whether driven by regulation or market competition, the financial services sector in several jurisdictions is progressing toward open banking, interconnectivity and a freer flow of data between customer accounts and third parties. As such, data security has simultaneously emerged as a renewed focal point for the financial services market, because the more data moves and the more actors touch it, the more exposure that information has to nefarious actors.

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Back to Basics with Reconciliations

Join us in this webinar, where we share best practices on how to think about the reconciliation work each month, when best to do reconciliations, how they should be prepared, and some common pitfalls to avoid. Learning Objectives: This course objective is to understand how to properly prepare and review balance sheet reconciliations and its impact on the financial statements.

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FLEETCOR May Be Nearing Western Union Business Payments Buy

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Western Union and FLEETCOR are nearing an agreement to sell WU’s business payments operations to the fleet payments firm, according to reports in PE Hub on Wednesday (Nov. 15). Citing three unnamed sources, reports said Citi is advising on the deal, which could fetch $600 million for the B2B payments operations. Though unconfirmed, the deal would not come entirely as a surprise.

B2B 77
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Why Real-Time Payments Need Real-Time Trust

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It can be a moment of anxiety, worry and mistrust: that moment when a digital payment is sent into what was once called the ether. Will the funds end up in the right bank account? Will fraudsters hitch a ride? Those and other questions can vex people involved in the transaction — and keep them glued to paper-based payments until the questions can be answered to their satisfaction.

B2B 77
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PayPal Working Capital Steps Into Germany

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PayPal is broadening its small business financing offering into the German market, a press release announced on Wednesday (Nov. 7). PayPal Working Capital will launch in Germany as PayPal Businesskredit, offering small and medium-sized businesses access to working capital financing that is deposited directly into their PayPal accounts. The rollout of its SMB lending offering comes nearly 15 years after PayPal first launched operations in the market, and adds Germany to the list of markets in whi

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Bank Of England Plans Panel To Standardize Payments Messaging

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As the U.K. continues its move to adopt the ISO 20022 payments messaging standard, the Bank of England is reportedly planning to create a panel aimed at streamlining the adoption of the standard for more efficient payments in the country. In a press release issued last week, the Bank of England said that it, along with Pay.UK, is inviting interested parties to join its Standard Advisory Panel to help guide adoption of the payments messaging standard across the New Payments Architecture (NPA).

Retail 77
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Usage-Based Monetization Musts: A Roadmap for Sustainable Revenue Growth

Speaker: David Warren and Kevin O’Neill Stoll

Transitioning to a usage-based business model offers powerful growth opportunities but comes with unique challenges. How do you validate strategies, reduce risks, and ensure alignment with customer value? Join us for a deep dive into designing effective pilots that test the waters and drive success in usage-based revenue. Discover how to develop a pilot that captures real customer feedback, aligns internal teams with usage metrics, and rethinks sales incentives to prioritize lasting customer eng

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NEW DATA: 14 Ways To Improve Mobile Checkout Conversion

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Smartphones are now more ubiquitous than laptops and desktops. As many as 86 percent of modern consumers own a smartphone, and 23 percent of them shop on their mobiles. Many eTailers are looking to cash in on the smartphone’s ubiquity by optimizing their mobile sites, making it easier for consumers to navigate, find and pay for items. For bottom-performing merchants, mobile checkouts are an even higher priority.

Retail 77
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Nigerian Presidential Hopeful Wants Blockchain And Crypto To Help Economy

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Atiku Abubakar, a 2019 presidential candidate in Nigeria, said he will support cryptocurrency and blockchain if he becomes the country’s next leader, according to the Daily Post. The push is part of his “Get Nigeria Working Again” proposal. Abubakar, who is a former vice president, plans to use cryptocurrency to help speed up the economy in the country.

Ohio 77
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Amex’s Small Business Saturday Bests $100B

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On Nov. 24, holiday consumers and small businesses celebrated the ninth annual Small Business Saturday. The event, created by American Express as an offshoot to Black Friday , brought in an estimated $17.8 billion, according to surveys commissioned by the company. This brings the estimated total spending on the day to $103 billion since 2010, reported Amex.

Sales 77
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BitPay Lands Ex-PayPal Talent For Business Solutions Unit

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B2B cryptocurrency payments company BitPay announced this week that Rolf Haag is joining the company to lead its business solutions unit. In a press release , BitPay said Haag will spearhead the company’s B2B and mass payments operations. He comes to BitPay after working for both Western Union as its former director of global mass payments, and PayPal as its former head of mass payment global disbursements.

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Harness the Potential of Your Enterprise Knowledge

The first Market Momentum Index: AI and Unstructured Data Management, conducted by Deep Analysis with support from AIIM and M-Files, surveyed 500 enterprises across various industries to assess their readiness to employ AI. The results reveal that AI is already far more embedded into organizations' operations than previously realized. These findings and more insights have been brought to you in the "Market Momentum Index: AI and Unstructured Data Management.

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Bitcoin Daily: Hublot Unveils Bitcoin Watches; Swiss Regulator Throttles Bank Crypto Trading

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Blockchain , the crypto wallet provider, plans to have an airdrop worth $125 million, Fortune reported. Through the cryptocurrency giveaway, each recipient would receive around the equivalent of around $25 in Stellar. The company said in a statement, “Accessible to anyone with a Blockchain Wallet, the first batch of recipients will receive their lumens, Stellar’s native digital currency, this week — for free.

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Overstock Talks Up Its Blockchain-Based Future

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Overstock may be best known as an eCommerce business, but these days its CEO and Founder Patrick Byrne is much more interested in talking about the power of cryptocurrency and blockchain, and how it will be the real future of both the firm and the economy in general. Suffice to say, Byrne remains one of blockchain’s bigger boosters. But things in the eCommerce business also showed signs of strength.

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UK Retail Banks Draft FinTech Alliance Guidelines

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Top U.K. banks and financial technology firms have worked together to create a set of guidelines to improve the relationship between FinTech startups and financial institutions (FIs). The new guidelines, developed by the British Standards Institute (BSI), aim to address issues that interfere with FinTech firms and banks forming alliances. The U.K. banks that put them together includes the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Barclays, HSBC UK, Lloyds Banking Group and Santander — as well as vendors l

Retail 76
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In The Age Of Algorithms, Will Banks Ever Graduate To True AI?

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Algorithms are taking on more of the data and security work for financial institutions (FIs), with technologies such as data mining and business rules management systems (BRMS) finding popularity among banks and credit unions. However, fewer institutions have made the move to true artificial intelligence (AI), with funding and even misunderstanding about the technology serving as challenges to the wider acceptance of AI.

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Solve Your Firm's Automation Complexities Once and For All

Speaker: Mark Stovel

When it comes to automating, many firms focus on finding the latest tech, believing that efficiency is something achieved through new tools. Yet true efficiency is achieved by delivering real value to clients, not merely by upgraded systems. Without a clear approach, no level of automation can overcome the complexities of serving every client’s needs.

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NEW REPORT: Buzz Vs Reality — Measuring The AI Gap In Payments And Banking

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“Artificial intelligence” (AI) may be a financial industry buzzword, but how many banks actually use it? The truth is that AI is still relatively rare in the banking world, with only 5.5 percent of banks in our survey equipped with genuine AI systems. Meanwhile, the rest are relying on automation and machine learning (ML) technologies. In other words, financial institutions (FIs) that use AI are few and far between, but that’s not to say FIs from aren’t investing in it — or rather in what they t

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Payment Players Launch U.S. Faster Payments Council To Speed Up Payments

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A group of payment players announced Tuesday (Nov. 13) that they created a new organization, dubbed U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC), aimed at working toward a ubiquitous payment system that enables Americans to safely and securely pay anyone, anywhere and at any time with near-immediate funds availability. In a press release, the group said the mission, structure and focus of the U.S.

B2B 76
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Walgreens, Humana Mull Partnership Expansion

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Drugstore owner Walgreens Boots Alliance is in preliminary discussions with health insurer Humana about possibly taking equity stakes in each other. The companies already have a partnership that serves seniors from two Walgreens locations. Now, citing sources familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal ( WSJ ) reported that Walgreens and Humana are having wide-ranging talks that include expanding that venture.

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Why The Bank-FinTech Relationship Is More Complicated Than Conflicted

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Pick your metaphor: David vs. Goliath. Knocking the giant off the pedestal. Or, as a recent CNBC article put it, quoting a source, “a mass extinction event.”. The subject? The ongoing struggle, supposedly existential in nature, that pits upstart, relatively young FinTech firms against arrogantly complacent banks for supremacy in this new and growing world of digital payments and commerce.

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Travel and Expense Policy Success: Your Essential Checklist

Setting the stage for successful organizational change always begins with clear, thoughtful communication. When it comes to rolling out a new travel and expense (T&E) policy, establishing a well-structured communication plan is key to ensuring that all employees understand the changes and their impact. By following a step-by-step approach, you can guide your organization through the transition, fostering smooth adoption from the outset and improving compliance.