Sat.Apr 25, 2020 - Fri.May 01, 2020

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Episode 068: A conversation with Allan Koltin

BuildYourFirm

Join host Hugh Duffy as he has a conversation with Allan Koltin, CEO of Koltin Consulting Group. Koltin is a nationally recognized speaker and industry analyst. He has appeared on numerous local and national media platforms, spreading his industry expertise. The two discuss various topics, focusing heavily on the future of the business. Which strategies will work long-term?

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Mnuchin Now Says All PPP Loan Recipients Will Face Audits

PYMNTS

Businesses that borrow money through the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) can expect to be audited before the loans are forgiven, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told The Wall Street Journal. “One of the things that will be required is you will have to show a payroll report that you actually spent the money on payroll and other items that qualify for forgiveness,” he said.

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On-Demand Webinar: COVID-19 Business Survival Series: “Managing Cash Flow and Accessing Capital”

Katz,Sapper&Miller

It’s no secret that COVID-19 is impacting every business in complex ways. Even with many states planning to “reopen” their economies in the coming weeks, accessing capital and maintaining adequate cash flow continue to threaten many companies’ long-term viability.

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Use the Average Vacation Time to Build Your Business’s Policy

Patriot Software

Do you want to give your employees paid time off from work? If you choose to offer paid vacation days as an employee benefit, you might not know how many to provide. To stay competitive, take a look at the national average vacation time. Benefits of paid vacation time Before we dive into the average […]. The post Use the Average Vacation Time to Build Your Business’s Policy appeared first on Patriot Software.

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Building a Business Case for Finance Automation

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.

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Instant Replay: PPP Loan Site Flatlines On Opening Day Of Second Round

PYMNTS

The second round of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funding was an instant replay of the first, as the loan network collapsed from the tsunami of applications from small businesses desperate for relief. . “All of the reports I have around the country is that it’s been a disaster,” Paul Merski of the Independent Community Bankers of America told The Washington Post (WaPo) on Monday (April 27).

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Crypto Businesses Overcome The Challenge Of Getting Banked

PYMNTS

The volatility of cryptocurrencies and their existence in what’s often a grey area of regulatory compliance make businesses operating in this sector an unattractive target for traditional financial institutions. Today, there remains a broad spectrum of positions that regulators and financial service providers hold when it comes to working with crypto businesses.

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Visa’s Jack Forestell On Helping SMBs Fast Track Into The Digital Age

PYMNTS

After many weeks and months of social distancing, the world is now actively and audibly wondering when the economic recovery will begin. Visa ’s Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer Jack Forestell told Karen Webster that it’s the wrong question to ask. The recovery, he contends, is already underway. The pandemic and the recovery aren’t two separate events that will happen in sequence — but are two connected happenings playing out contiguously.

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Reinventing Retail Will Mean Embracing New Formats

PYMNTS

Reinventing retail in the wake of COVID-19 may mean reinventing retail formats. As the discussion turns to reopening, non-essential locations — malls included — will need to consider old issues like total footprint and new ones like shopper distancing. “As retailers and brands grapple with big questions related to reopening stores, it’s clear from our findings that consumers have varying degrees of comfort within different store environments and formats,” said Greg Petro, CEO of retail testing c

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Figure’s Mike Cagney: Stimulus Snafus Show It’s Time For Digital Dollars – And Blockchain

PYMNTS

Nothing brings money to top of mind like tax season — and tax refunds and stimulus payments , doled out in the wake of a pandemic known as the coronavirus. The trillions of dollars in stimulus funding and tax refunds being extended to families, individuals and businesses is coming — but slowly. Very slowly. The first waves of $1,200 (for individuals) or $2,400 (for couples) and $500 checks (per child), for taxpayers, started hitting bank accounts earlier in the month.

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When Consumers Are Remote, Banks And Credit Unions Come To Them

PYMNTS

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted traditional banks to take fresh looks at their digital initiatives and has given digital-only banks the opportunity to learn about the advantages and hurdles of serving customers primarily through online and mobile channels. Many physical bank branches have temporarily closed or reduced service hours to better safeguard their employees and spare themselves the costs of operating branches now that consumers are staying home.

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Fall In Love With the Month-End Close

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.

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Big Banks Temporarily Shut Out Of SBA’s PPP Loan Portal

PYMNTS

For the first time since a small business loan program was launched, small lenders have been moved to the front of the line. On Wednesday (April 29) the U.S. Treasury Department and the Small Business Administration (SBA) said they will temporarily exclude big banks from the loan portal used to submit applications for the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for eight hours.

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US eCommerce Up 49 Pct; Curbside Pickup Soars 208 Pct Since April 1

PYMNTS

As the coronavirus shows no signs of abating, customers are opting to make their purchases without setting foot in stores, CNBC reported. Dozens of retailers, from Dick’s Sporting Goods to Walmart , have added contactless shopping services, and it’s caught on. The number of orders placed online and picked up at stores surged 208 percent between April 1 and April 20 compared to a year ago, according to Adobe Analytics, CNBC reported.

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Next Round Of $1,200 IRS Stimulus Checks To Go Out Soon

PYMNTS

The latest round of checks under the massive U.S. stimulus program is set to go out in the next few days. The key groups who will receive these payments include people who aren’t required to file tax returns, such as those who receive Social Security, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and veterans’ affairs benefits. In addition, tax filers who have recently provided bank information to the IRS will get the payments.

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Moving Augmented Reality Out Of The Living Room

PYMNTS

Shopping, like everything else in the business world, is falling into pre- and post- coronavirus pandemic reference points. Many retail technologies have benefitted from that schism, among them augmented reality (AR). Before the crisis hit, there were any number of ways to envision what, for example, a sofa would look like in a living room. Post-pandemic, showrooms are out of the question.

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Navigating Payroll Compliance: Future-Proofing Payroll in an Evolving Regulatory Landscape

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.

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Banks Aim AI At Credit Risk, Payments Services

PYMNTS

Of the seemingly inexhaustible uses of artificial intelligence (AI) in the financial sector, its applications around managing credit risk and optimizing payment services are among the most promising. The proliferation of “smart agents” that handle these tasks is a glimpse of more innovation to come, as AI proves its worth to financial institutions (FIs) in the great reopening.

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MoneyGram’s Walk-In Business Hit By The Coronavirus As Digital Transactions Surge

PYMNTS

With its walk-in business taking a large negative hit due to the coronavirus pandemic and stay-at-home orders, MoneyGram reported 57 percent digital transaction growth for the first quarter of 2020. The money transfer company said performance was driven by high client retention rates, market growth and strong demand for the company’s app. However, Chairman and CEO Alex Holmes said on a Friday (May 1) earnings call that the company’s walk-in business saw a sudden and abrupt impact starting with m

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How COVID-19 Is Creating A ‘New Normal’ For Credit Unions

PYMNTS

Shutdowns. Lockdowns. Shuttered branches. Banking may be forever altered. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic is disrupting financial services, as consumers pull back on spending, raise cash to deal with emergencies and take to ordering, well, everything online. In an interview with PYMNTS, Steve Salzer, senior vice president, legal and enterprise risk at PSCU , said that amid the disruption, opportunities are taking shape for credit unions (CUs) to cement their relationships with existing customer

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Deep Dive: Strategizing Transparent, Holistic Digital Banking Transformations

PYMNTS

Financial institutions’ (FIs’) consumers and business clients expect instant access to needed financial services regardless of which devices they use, but reality can fall short of their expectations. Banks do not always have the budgets or resources to craft cutting-edge online and mobile experiences, although they can no longer afford to put off digital transformations.

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Next-Level Fraud Prevention: Strategies for Today’s Threat Landscape

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.

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Why APIs, Privacy Are Key To Open Banking Innovation

PYMNTS

Open banking developments were impacting customers’ interactions with their banks before the COVID-19 pandemic. Financial institutions (FIs) and regulators in Singapore, the E.U. and the U.S. have passed laws or implemented programs over the past two years to put more focus on digital banking and data security, fundamentally changing how online transactions work.

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‘Paging Dr. Spot’ – How Robots Are Helping Doctors Make The Rounds

PYMNTS

Robotics adoption has had something of a rocky road in the U.S. market in the last several years. While the CES show in Las Vegas has in recent memory been rife with robots of all shapes, sizes and specialties, reception among consumers and businesses has been mixed at best. It was a little over a year ago that PYMNTS covered in this very column the tragic and untimely deaths of the Anki and the Jibo, two early efforts at consumer robotics that entered the market with a lot of buzz, but ultimate

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FinTechs Expand Open Banking Opportunity For Banks

PYMNTS

New solutions continue to roll out as a result of open banking frameworks around the world and banks’ increasing willingness to collaborate with FinTechs. This week’s look at the latest in bank-FinTech collaborations reveals two new open banking initiatives from FinTechs designed to address back-office friction for banks. Meanwhile, other partnerships between banks and FinTechs embrace data sharing to target friction for joint small business customers.

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Contextualizing The SMB Credit Score Through Open Banking

PYMNTS

Businesses have a front-row seat to the market volatility resulting from coronavirus. As governments around the world work with financial institutions to connect these companies to capital, many firms are quickly recognizing just how drastically their financial worlds have been turned upside down. One business client of small business credit scoring company CRIF Realtime experienced this firsthand.

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Cash Flow Secrets Every Upskilled CPA Should Know

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.

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Savings Rate Surges To Highest Level In 39 Years

PYMNTS

The shaky coronavirus economy has promoted people to sock money at levels not seen since 1981. A Bureau of Economic Analysis report released on Thursday (April 30) indicated that the savings rate escalated to 13.1 percent in March, with people putting away $2.17 trillion. Comparatively, the savings rate in February was 8 percent. The savings rate peaked at 12 percent in December 2012 but dropped to 5.8 percent in 2013. .

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Building The ‘Home Oasis’ One Smart Device At A Time

PYMNTS

The house (or the apartment or the studio or your parents’ basement) is increasingly becoming a focal point of daily life. Time, then, to picture the house as a bit more like home. As PYMNTS found in one recent study, “ Navigating The COVID-19 Pandemic: The Post Pandemic Reset ,” as many as 32 percent of consumers plan to do far less outside the home than they had done before the coronavirus hit.

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In Brazil, Banking Customers Turn To Debit, Digital Banking

PYMNTS

The coronavirus pandemic has left consumers staying home when possible to stop the virus’s spread. It has also made them wary of taking on debt because their financial circumstances could change at any moment. These shifts have made digital banking and debit transactions more important than ever. Financial institutions (FIs) are now working to extend services into customers’ homes, for example, and consumers are making fewer credit card payments amid uncertainty over what their employment status

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Why It’s So Hard To Kill The Check In The Booze Business

PYMNTS

The new coronavirus swiftly impacted small- and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) rather harshly, with these entities now struggling to manage remote workers who need to send out paper invoices to suppliers and other business partners attached to checks. Moving from paper to digital has evolved for business-to-consumer (B2C) payments in recent years, but upgrading business-to-business (B2B) payments has taken longer.

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Profit in the Details: Rethinking Spend for Monumental Impact

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

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Facebook Could Lose Accreditation Of Media Rating Council

PYMNTS

Facebook Inc. advertisers probably won’t “like” its subpar rating from a media industry watchdog. The Media Rating Council (MRC) review found that the California-based social media giant has failed to address advertisers’ concerns arising from an Ernst & Young audit over how it measures and reports data about video advertisements. . “The Committee felt strongly that the lack of response and detailed action plans by Facebook within 60 days would lead them to take negative action,” according

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How FIs And FinTechs Are Expanding The Credit Card Paradigm

PYMNTS

As consumers shop amid ongoing public health restrictions, they almost invariably reach for their credit cards — whether the physical varieties in their wallets or the digital versions stored on their browsers and mobile devices. Cash and brick-and-mortar transactions were already on the decline, but the pandemic is sure to hasten these trends. More than ever, credit cards are becoming the coin of the realm in the global connected economy.

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Macy’s Loses Credit Insurance Coverage

PYMNTS

As if closing stores, laying off workers and incurring mounting debt amid the coronavirus pandemic wasn’t bad enough, now retailers face another obstacle, Bloomberg News reported. Two of the largest providers of retail credit insurance, Coface SA and Euler Hermes Group SAS, have stopped writing policies covering Macy’s and other big stores, the news service reported.

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Visa: Tap to Pay Transactions Grow 40 Pct YoY

PYMNTS

Visa posted fiscal second-quarter results that showed a precipitous falloff in cross-border volumes late in the quarter amid the coronavirus pandemic, alongside what it termed a “significant deterioration” in spending that was evident in March. Those declines were offset at least in part by what management characterized as a long-standing shift to contactless payments and a move away from cash transactions.

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Navigating Bleisure Travel: A Guide for Mid-Sized Companies

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.