PYMNTS

NOVEMBER 22, 2018

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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Katz,Sapper&Miller

NOVEMBER 19, 2018

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) recently issued Accounting Standards Update (ASU) No. 2018-08, Not-for-Profit Entities (Topic 958): Clarifying the Scope and the Accounting Guidance for Contributions Received and Contributions Made (ASU 2018-08) that clarifies and improves the scope and accounting guidance around contributions of cash and other assets received and made by not-for-profit organizations (NFPs) and business entities.

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PYMNTS

NOVEMBER 19, 2018

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

Gaming Start-ups Technology 78

PYMNTS

NOVEMBER 19, 2018

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.

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Retail 77

Speaker: Amanda Adams, Fractional CFO, CPA

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NOVEMBER 21, 2018

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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PYMNTS

NOVEMBER 21, 2018

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.

Pharmaceutical 76

Pharmaceutical Healthcare Retail 76

PYMNTS

NOVEMBER 21, 2018

The rate of contact center fraud has skyrocketed recently, growing by 350 percent during the past four years. For call centers, dealing with this growing issue requires a multi-pronged approached, complete with defense to beat attacks coming from both outside and inside the company. That means thwarting fraudsters who call in, masquerading as legitimate customers, or who hack into a cell center, as well as blocking any dishonest agents within the center from stealing customer information.

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Technology Retail Maine 76

PYMNTS

NOVEMBER 20, 2018

Bitcoin’s use as a form of commercial payments has declined during the year, at the same time that the digital token appears to be stabilizing. According to a report in Reuters , citing Chainalysis, the blockchain research firm, the value of bitcoin handled by payment processors declined close to 80 percent this year ending in September, signaling that bitcoin is still having a tough time moving away from being a speculative asset.

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PYMNTS

NOVEMBER 20, 2018

According to the latest Q3 2018 TransUnion’s Industry Insights Report the back half of 2018 has been a good year for sub-prime borrowers looking for access to credit. In the year between Q2 2017 and Q2 2018, sub-prime consumer loan originations grew 28 percent between Q2 2017 and Q2 2018 across the categories of auto loans, mortgage loans and credit cards.

Start-ups 75

Start-ups Finance 75

PYMNTS

NOVEMBER 18, 2018

A Chinese company that develops facial recognition technology could be facing a ban in the U.S. According to the Financial Times , the facial recognition cameras are created by Hikvision , one of the world’s biggest CCTV companies, selling video surveillance throughout China and across the globe. However, its core components — from the chips that power its smart cameras to the hardware that stores high-definition footage — are made in Silicon Valley.

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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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NOVEMBER 22, 2018

In India, get ready for new lines. News came this week that as many as half of the ATMs that dot the country’s landscape may be shuttered by March of 2019. The estimate is courtesy of the Confederation of ATM Industry (CATMi), which focuses on the domestic ATM industry. The number is a significant one, as there were more than 2.2 million ATMs across India, per data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Legal 75

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PYMNTS

NOVEMBER 20, 2018

His thinking began to change as eCommerce began to gain ground. David Yates was working at First Data , running its international business, and online retail, as he recalled in a new PYMNTS interview, was “really starting to lift off.” He started to really consider the role of payments in the overall transaction experience, one not totally tethered to the physical world.

Non-Profits 74

Non-Profits Start-ups Retail Technology 74

PYMNTS

NOVEMBER 21, 2018

Amazon is preparing to enter the mobile payments market, reportedly working to get retailers to accept Amazon Pay as a payment method. The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, reported Amazon wants the service to be expanded beyond making payments online. The paper reported that Amazon in its initial push and has been working with gas stations, restaurants and local merchants that aren’t competing directly with Amazon.

Retail 74

Retail accountant Account accounted 74

PYMNTS

NOVEMBER 20, 2018

The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether bitcoin’s record-breaking performance last year was caused by market manipulation. Late last year, the value of a single bitcoin hit $9,143, climbing nearly six points in just 24 hours for a market cap north of $152 billion. According to a recent report from Bloomberg, the DoJ is looking into whether traders used Tether , a controversial cryptocurrency that is allegedly backed 1:1 by the U.S. dollar, to help bitcoin reach its record highs.

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Texas Government Finance 74

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PYMNTS

NOVEMBER 23, 2018

Keeping yourself protected from criminals can often seem a daunting task. Even the most eagled-eyed person — for instance, a veteran tourist in a crowded plaza thick with professional pickpocket artists — probably lacks the laser focus, determination and experience of those bent on theft and other illegal activities. That holds true in the digital world, where software, computer and fraud experts operate globally, and part of global networks, using their expertise not only to steal from consumer

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PYMNTS

NOVEMBER 22, 2018

When Amazon announced Alexa’s first big global push last year, some were left scratching their heads about the rollout, and how well suited Amazon’s voice-activated speaker was for a global audience. The device launched in 80 countries, but somewhat differently than it had rolled out in other international locations like England, Germany and Japan. When Alexa debuted in those nations, users were able to converse with Alexa in their native language — and developers were given local language editi

Start-ups 73

Start-ups Retail Technology 73

PYMNTS

NOVEMBER 20, 2018

The European Central Bank is gearing up to launch a network of watchdogs that share information on money laundering in an effort to increase scrutiny of banks. According to a report in Reuters , citing European Central Bank Supervisory Board Chair Daniele Nouy, the European Central Bank’s Single Supervisory Mechanism will create an anti-money laundering office that will collect and share the information from other supervisors as well as from authorities.

Legal 73

Legal 73

PYMNTS

NOVEMBER 18, 2018

Amazon has announced the developer preview of Alexa-hosted skills for Amazon Web Services. In a blog post on Thursday (November 15), Amazon said the new offering will automatically provision and manage a set of Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud resources for developers skill’s back-end service. With an Alexa-hosted skill, Amazon said developers can build, edit and publish a skill without leaving the Alexa Skills Kit Developer Console.

Start-ups 72

Start-ups 72

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

Sales

PYMNTS

NOVEMBER 18, 2018

The subway system in Hong Kong will allow commuters to scan a QR code as a payment method after announcing a deal with Alibaba’s payment affiliate Ant Financial last week. According to reports , as part of the partnership, scan to pay services will be enabled in 91 MTR metro stations beginning in the middle of 2020. Commuters will use the Alipay app to scan a code at the turnstile.

Transportation 71

Transportation Technology 71

PYMNTS

NOVEMBER 19, 2018

During the holiday shopping season, countless consumers will use digital payments and commerce technology to buy gifts from distant companies — some overseas, some just in neighboring time zones — and have them shipped seamlessly to their destinations. But the same technology that enables those transactions also can bring the benefits of consumer intimacy to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that are often struggling to win more market share in a retail world dominated by the likes of Ama

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Retail Maine Gaming Sales 70

PYMNTS

NOVEMBER 20, 2018

About 48.5 million Americans will be hitting the road this week for the Thanksgiving holiday, according to AAA. A fair share will be stopping at gas stations to refuel their tanks, and roughly half of these consumers will be using mobile apps to find the cheapest gas and get directions to the station. Of course, no road trip is complete without snacks and refreshments.

Sales 70

Sales Maine Retail 70

PYMNTS

NOVEMBER 20, 2018

Real-time payments: It’s one of those changes that everyone seems to agree on, but could still use some push. That’s the idea behind the recently launched Faster Payments Council (FPC), a group of payment industry participants with the goal of providing a ubiquitous payment system with near-immediate funds availability anywhere. New PYMNTS research painted a detailed picture of how the market is seemingly ready for such transactions.

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Education B2B Technology Government 70

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PYMNTS

NOVEMBER 18, 2018

Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) had a plan for crypto wallet service regulation on its meeting agenda for a recent gathering of its crypto study group, bitcoin.com reported. As it stands, crypto wallet providers aren’t currently treated the same way as cryptocurrency exchanges as they do not engage in cryptocurrency trading. Instead, these providers transfer and manage digital currencies.

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PYMNTS

NOVEMBER 21, 2018

It’s a relatively simple prospect: Select food. Order food. Eat and pay for the food (the process depends on the type of restaurant, of course). And then, perhaps, open a few notches on your belt to allow your newly full stomach to expand. ( Happy Thanksgiving , by the way!). But even as that basic concept remains in force — and will likely remain in force until pure energy is simply transferred seamlessly into computer-hybrid, not-quite-traditionally human bodies in one potential future — mobi

Retail 69

Retail Technology accountant Account 69

PYMNTS

NOVEMBER 18, 2018

Visa , American Express and Mastercard are among the payment companies that are the subject of an inquiry by Brazilian regulators. According to a report in Bloomberg citing the Brazilian Administrative Council for Economic Defense or CADE , the Brazilian regulators are looking to see if the credit card companies ran afoul of payment network rules. Bloomberg noted that Visa said in an annual regulatory filing that it’s also looking into the country’s Elo Network as well.

Retail 69

Retail Technology 69

PYMNTS

NOVEMBER 19, 2018

The bitcoin bust continued Monday (Nov. 19), with the price of the cryptocurrency falling to $4,905 by mid-afternoon, a decline of at least 12 percent. Over the past week, the price of bitcoin has declined some 20 percent — and at least 60 percent since January. “Bitcoin futures also hit their lowest levels since their introduction in December 2017, with Bitcoin CME November futures down to $4,855 and bitcoin contracts on the CBOE down at $4,878.10,” reads one report from Monday.

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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.

PYMNTS

NOVEMBER 22, 2018

According to the National Turkey Federation (which really does exist) roughly 85 percent of Americans plan to eat turkey for Thanksgiving. That amounts to something like 45 to 50 million turkeys sold and 700 million to 800 million pounds of turkey meat eaten today — and the days to come as leftovers. The average turkey weighs 16 pounds and costs $22.03.

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New York Maine Start-ups Retail 67

PYMNTS

NOVEMBER 21, 2018

Most U.S. businesses are over-exposed to risks related to interest rate and foreign exchange volatility, according to new Citizens Bank research. The FI published a report on Tuesday (Nov. 20) detailing the findings of a survey. Citizens asked more than 300 corporate professionals about how their firms are managing interest rate and FX volatility, finding two-thirds could be over-exposed to volatility risks.

B2B 67

B2B 67

PYMNTS

NOVEMBER 18, 2018

Chase has announced the launch of Chase Offers, which will allow customers to find deals and earn statement credits when shopping at their favorite retail stores. Customers who log into their Chase app can access Chase Offers from more than 150 merchants including retailers, restaurants, and many of the company’s existing merchant partners. Customers are able to select and add their chosen offers through the app — and then use them with eligible Chase credit and debit cards.

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Retail Sales 67

PYMNTS

NOVEMBER 21, 2018

A new report has predicted that recurring transactions processed on debit and credit cards in the United States will reach $473 billion by 2021. The report , “U.S. Recurring Payments Market Forecast, 2017–2021: Set It and Forget It,” has explored U.S. market size and reviewed service offerings from seven providers in the U.S. market. Amazon , for example, has captured an estimated $7 billion to $10 billion in annual Amazon Prime subscription fees, enabling its one-click purchasing function that

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Retail accountant Account accounted 66

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