Sat.Nov 02, 2019 - Fri.Nov 08, 2019

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Amazon To Build $40M Robotics Innovation Hub Near Boston

PYMNTS

Amazon is planning to build a $40 million state-of-the-art robotics innovation hub near Boston that will result in the creation of 200 tech and manufacturing jobs, Amazon announced in a press release Wednesday (Nov. 6). Tye Brady, chief technologist at Amazon Robotics, said the new hub will speed-up innovation and will be a “world-class facility, where our teams can design, build, program, and ship our robots, all under the same roof.”.

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Niesen Named Indiana Chamber Volunteer of the Year

Katz,Sapper&Miller

Donna Niesen has been named by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce as a 2019 Samuel C. Schlosser Volunteer of the Year. The award honors community leaders who give their time and expertise to the Chamber for the benefit of all Hoosier businesses.

Indiana 40
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Flywire Taps Former Apple Pay Exec As President, COO

PYMNTS

A relentless focus on customer experience and simplifying complexity are the defining characteristics of the most valuable companies in the world today. It’s a concept Rob Orgel, now the new president and chief operating officer at Flywire , told Karen Webster was foundational to his decade-long career at Apple — where he was part of the leadership team that developed, rolled out and grew the Apple Pay business.

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Study: US Housing Market Slows Down As Homeowners Stay Put Longer

PYMNTS

U.S. homeowners’ decision to stay in their homes longer is keeping much-needed inventory off the real estate market, causing a slip in home sales. New analysis by Redfin found that homeowners around the country are typically staying in their homes for 13 years, five years longer than they did in 2010. “If people aren’t moving on, there just are fewer and fewer homes available for new home buyers,” said Daryl Fairweather, Redfin’s chief economist.

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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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Visa Teams With Tencent To Support Mobile Payments In China

PYMNTS

Visa has released a statement saying Tencent’s announcement that it will support international card schemes in its mobile wallet is “a great step forward” for the payments industry. “Visa believes this is a great step forward, both for consumers travelling to China and the overall payments industry. In a truly global commerce environment, collaboration is essential to provide consumers with a seamless payments experience,” Visa said in a release. .

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Coca-Cola Supply Co. To Expand Blockchain Efforts After Successful Trial

PYMNTS

Coca-Cola’s supply chain operations are run by an IT firm called Coke One North America (CONA), and the company recently had such a successful run with blockchain software provider SAP that it’s going to expand the program from two to 70 manufacturers, according to reports. . Those manufacturers deliver about 160,000 bottles a day. The purpose of the blockchain push was to help improve distribution and allow the manufacturers access to others’ orders and specifications. .

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Walmart Rolls Out Paid Membership Program For Unlimited Delivery

PYMNTS

Walmart has introduced a new program called Delivery Unlimited in 1,400 of its stores. Customers who want to order groceries from Walmart without having to pay a per-delivery fee every time have the option of paying $98 a year or $12.95 a month, according to the company. “That means shopping has never been easier or come at a better value — order your full grocery list plus anything you may need for the week ahead (like that toy you forgot for the birthday party this weekend!

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Why Friendly Fraud Is Anything But Friendly

PYMNTS

While there is little good to be said about criminal fraudsters who plague merchants by stealing credentials to snag goods with absolutely no intention of ever paying for them, they at least have the merit of being a fairly homogeneous group in terms of intention. The goal is to steal as much and as often as they possibly can. Fraud is their profession.

Retail 53
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Deep Dive: Digital ID Systems Wrestle With Ethics

PYMNTS

Digital identities are flexibly changing forms as they gain ubiquity. Consumers around the world log in to eBay with their Facebook profiles, purchase lunches with Apple Pay and in some cases pay their taxes or register to vote with government-provided digital identities. Many expanding technologies raise ethical implementation concerns, and digital ID’s extraordinary potential means coordinating clear and internationally accepted guidelines is increasingly necessary.

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In First Month, Goldman Extends $10B In Apple Card Credit 

PYMNTS

Goldman Sachs said it doled out about $10 billion in credit lines in just over month for the Apple -branded credit card, Bloomberg reported on Friday (Nov. 1). . According to regulatory filings made public this week, Apple Card? customers had $736 million in loan balances at the end of September, though it’s not clear how that compares with other credit cards, as Bloomberg said banks do not break out performance by individual cards.

Retail 51
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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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Andreessen Horowitz To Launch School For Blockchain/Crypto Startups

PYMNTS

Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is offering a course to help entrepreneurs better understand blockchain technology and cryptocurrency companies, according to a report by CNBC. The firm was founded by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, and it has been one of the most active firms in the space, creating a $350 million fund dedicated to crypto investing.

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Goldman Extends $10B In Apple Card Credit In First Month

PYMNTS

Goldman Sachs said it doled out about $10 billion in credit lines in just over month for the Apple -branded credit card, Bloomberg reported on Friday (Nov. 1). . According to regulatory filings made public this week, Apple Card? customers had $736 million in loan balances at the end of September, though it’s not clear how that compares with other credit cards, as Bloomberg said banks do not break out performance by individual cards.

Retail 51
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Why Online Retail Fraud Is On the Rise

PYMNTS

Amazon has struggled with preventing counterfeit goods from infiltrating its marketplace. In the company’s ongoing efforts to prevent fraud on its site, Amazon announced a new program, Intellectual Property Accelerator, last month to help sellers make sure their products won’t be copied or counterfeited. From counterfeiting to identity theft to phishing attacks, digital fraud takes many forms — and online shopping continues to make consumers and merchants vulnerable to such attacks.

Retail 49
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Visa On Challenging B2B Payments Status Quo

PYMNTS

To change the status quo — to upend the way it’s always been done — the mantra goes, “think outside the box.”. Or in payments, think beyond the rails. To that end, Alan Koenigsberg, global head of new payment flows at Visa Business Solutions , said in a Masterclass interview with Karen Webster that the B2B space represents a landscape ripe with opportunity.

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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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SCA Awareness Issues Persist Among EU Merchants, Consumers

PYMNTS

Earlier studies found a surprising lack of both consumer and merchant awareness about the European Union’s Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) and second Payment Services Directive ( PSD2 ) regulations. Post-SCA deadline, a lack of readiness persists. SCA awareness is thankfully high among the payment providers tasked with executing and communicating the mandates to businesses and consumers.

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Why Amazon Decided To Bring Alexa Into The Bill Pay Flow

PYMNTS

It has happened to almost everyone. The bill comes in the mail — or maybe via email reminder — and the customer says, “Oh, I have to pay this,” then puts the bill down on their kitchen table or desk. Days pass, stuff piles up and, before the customer knows it, the due date has come and gone. Now, they owe the original bill, plus the late fee. Amazon Pay Vice President Patrick Gauthier told Karen Webster in a recent interview that billing is one of those areas in which, once the company put a lit

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Biometrics Innovation Tests Consumer Privacy Sentiment

PYMNTS

Biometrics isn’t as sci-fi as it once was. Thanks to smartphones equipped with facial and fingerprint recognition for security, many consumers now have up close and personal experience with newer forms of digital ID. Innovations — some more fantastical than others — keep emerging, though. Vein recognition? Voice patterns? Old hat. One of the newest forms of biometrics is the sound that an individual’s bones make.

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Tune.fm Enables Hedera Crypto Payments For Music

PYMNTS

Tune.fm has become the first music streaming platform with an integrated cryptocurrency to run on Hedera Hashgraph ‘s public distributed ledger technology (DLT). Musicians have often struggled to get paid what they are owed for their work. This system will use a Hedera-based crypto token called Jam that enables fast micropayments for every second of music streamed between fans and artists.

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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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Can Robots Help Solve the Fresh Food Problem?

PYMNTS

Fresh food is one of those products that, depending on the context, can almost feel like a minor luxury. Sure, consumers who can get to good grocery stores or farmers’ markets (not all shoppers can) or afford to subscribe to meal-kit delivery services, are assured of a steady supply of nutritious eats. But even so, many consumers work long shifts at places where vending machines and cafeterias offer, at best, mildly nutritious fare.

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When Restaurant Tech Sees Your Face And Identifies Your Taste

PYMNTS

“Service with a smile” has been a foundation of the consumer-facing restaurant industry , implying that warmly welcomed customers keep coming back. A new technological advancement could flip that model on its head, however, and enable customers to start the service process with their own smiles. . A handful of restaurants have run facial recognition technology experiments at their self-service kiosks.

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Top News In Payments: Santander Acquires Ebury Stake, Goldman Sachs Extends $10B In Apple Card Credit

PYMNTS

In today’s top payments news, Banco Santander is acquiring just over 50 percent of the U.K. payments platform Ebury for $453 million. Also, Goldman Sachs has doled out approximately $10 billion in credit lines for the Apple -branded credit card. And Capital One is back online after a major outage. Goldman Extends $10B In Apple Card Credit In First Month.

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Ripple Accused Of Making False Claims About SWIFT’s Error Rate

PYMNTS

San Francisco-based blockchain FinTech Ripple is being questioned about its claims that rival cross-border payments firm SWIFT has a 6 percent error rate, AMBCrypto reported Tuesday (Nov. 5). Banking consultant Martin Walker , director of Banking and Finance at the Center for Evidence-Based Management, said in a paper produced for the London School of Economics, that he questions the repeated claims by Ripple executives of a 6 percent failure rate for SWIFT messages.

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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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The Rise Of Instant Payments In The Lending Industry

PYMNTS

Lenders need to meet borrowers’ needs before any of their competitors swoop in, which means application processes must be as quick and seamless as possible. That need for speed is also critical when it comes to loan disbursements , according to Paul Gu, co-founder and head of product for personal lending provider Upstart , as slow payouts can create frictions and frustrate customers.

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Setting Sights On Children’s Customizable Eyewear

PYMNTS

Pair Eyewear Co-Founder and CEO Nathan Kondamuri started wearing glasses when he was 8 years old, around second or third grade. He told PYMNTS in an interview that he remembers “how daunting” and uncomfortable “of an experience it was getting glasses for the first time.” It’s the first time that kids start to look different from others in their class — and, beyond that, he noted that the actual “buying process of glasses doesn’t really help the situation at all.

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Visa Invests In LISNR To Boost Mobile Payments Growth

PYMNTS

Ultrasonic data firm LISNR is getting a strategic investment from Visa to speed up expansion of its mobile payments, LISNR announced in a press release on Tuesday (Nov. 5). LISNR uses ultrasound technology to provide a solution that lets merchants and payment providers accept mobile payment data anytime during the customer journey. The technology works with all types of purchase scenarios – including scan-and-go, store pickups and eCommerce – and can also be used for messages, authentication and

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Facebook To Enhance Encryption On Messenger Despite Regulators’ Protests

PYMNTS

Facebook said it is going to enhance encryption capabilities on its Messenger communication platform, despite requests from lawmakers and regulators not to do so because of the potential result that pedophiles and criminals will be harder to track. Facebook also said it is going to go over safety measures and tell users how to avoid unwanted content, or how to report it, Reuters reported.

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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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China Changes Rules To Lure More IPOs In Tech

PYMNTS

China has changed some IPO rules to entice more tech companies to list publicly in the country, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. China previously attempted this and was focusing on large companies like Alibaba Group , but the plan never came to fruition due to a number of factors, including trade tensions and a lack of political support.

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Companies Can Make Payments In Billions Through BoA App

PYMNTS

Bank of America offers its corporate clients a unique perk. They can make payments in the billions of dollars on smartphones using the bank’s CashPro app, according to a report by Bloomberg. One company completed a $1.6 billion payment, which was the biggest transaction ever made using the app. CashPro is targeted to corporate treasury departments and small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

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Why Barclaycard Says Consumers Are Key To SCA Success

PYMNTS

As Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) becomes fully implemented, the merchants, banks and third-party payment services within the European Union (EU) are still working out the particulars. The impact of the regulation on the way payments and authentication can be conducted is being felt throughout the EU, but regulators in a variety of markets are still evaluating how SCA can best be applied.

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Moving FI, FinTech Partnerships Beyond The Press Release

PYMNTS

Big, splashy announcements of freshly-forged partnerships between FinTechs and mainstream payments and financial services players are released by the dozens these days. As for the “game changing” innovations they promise will “reshape” the landscape as we know it? As Flywire CEO Mike Massaro told Karen Webster in a recent conversation, that often depends on what the flavor of the month might be in payments and financial services.

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It Takes Two to Tango

With automation, you’ll reduce errors and save valuable time, allowing you to focus on what really matters: strategic analysis and insightful decision-making. Picture accurate financial reports ready at your fingertips, giving you the confidence to tackle business challenges head-on. Embracing automation not only boosts productivity but also elevates your role from number cruncher to closing rockstar.