PYMNTS

MARCH 29, 2019

Federal Bank in India has partnered with blockchain payments company Ripple to facilitate cross-border payments, according to reports. Federal Bank confirmed the collaboration in an announcement to the Bombay Stock Exchange on Thursday (March 28). “ This is to inform Federal Bank has entered into a partnership with Ripple Inc, a blockchain supported global remittance company, for cross border remittance through its network, ” the announcement said. “ Powered by blockchain-enabled solution, the R

Finance 96

Finance Technology 96

Katz,Sapper&Miller

MARCH 28, 2019

Kerry Dunn has joined KSM as the firm’s chief financial officer, a newly created role. As CFO, Dunn will oversee KSM’s financial systems and processes, including financial reporting, accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll, and budgeting. Additionally, he will play a key role in the firm’s financial strategy, including acquisitions and leveraging data to make sound business decisions.

accounts payable 49

accounts payable payroll accounted Account 49

CBH

MARCH 29, 2019

Available for public comment is Proposed Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) No. 2019-400, Compensation-Stock Compensation (Topic 718) and Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606): Codification Improvements-Share-Based Consideration Payable to a Customer. Issued last month by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”), the proposal aims to close a gap in stock compensation guidance concerning which topic to use when share-based consideration is paid to a customer.

accounting standards 40

accounting standards financial accounting accounted Account 40

Cherry Bekaert

MARCH 29, 2019

In an effort to improve working conditions, adjunct professors at Elon University voted this week to form a union. The second of its kind among faculty members in North Carolina, the union aims to negotiate pay raises, benefits, and other work-related matters for adjuncts at the private university. Many Elon adjunct professors supported creating a union because they had to take part-time jobs to make ends meet, and having a class canceled would cause a financial setback.

North Carolina 40

North Carolina Education 40

PYMNTS

MARCH 26, 2019

Ditch the plastic? Maybe, but not yet — and maybe not for a while. The world knows by now that Apple has debuted its credit card — the Apple Card — in conjunction with Goldman Sachs and Mastercard. The card is available in both virtual and tangible, plastic forms. The broad outline is one where the digital version of the card can be used wherever Apple Pay is accepted.

Gaming 95

Gaming Entertainment Sports Technology 95

Katz,Sapper&Miller

MARCH 29, 2019

Katz, Sapper & Miller will again be part of McLeod Software’s third annual Accounting and Finance Conference (formerly the McLeod CFO Conference). Taking place May 14 at McLeod’s new corporate headquarters in Birmingham, AL, the conference brings together financial professionals from trucking and brokerage/3PL companies to network and discuss industry issues and best practices.

accounting and finance 47

accounting and finance Finance Transportation Account 47

PYMNTS

MARCH 28, 2019

Instant payments — and the ability to push funds immediately across the debit rails to consumer bank accounts — has entered something of a renaissance. The demand is there: According to the latest edition of the PYMNTS Disbursements Tracker , 75 percent of consumers expressed a preference for faster payments, and 84 percent of those consumers reported debit cards as their preferred way of receiving those funds.

Retail 87

Retail accounted Account accountant 87

PYMNTS

MARCH 25, 2019

Approximately 20 billion IoT-enabled devices will be connected by 2020. These items are fast, handle an increasingly large amount of personal and financial data and tend to be prone to cybercriminals’ attacks. A large-scale, IoT-based breach has yet to occur, but the seeds are already sprouting. Thus, IoT security is becoming an essential part of modern conversations.

Washington 82

Washington California Manufacturing Start-ups 82

PYMNTS

MARCH 25, 2019

And so a tech giant gets into the credit card game. And not just any tech giant – it’s Apple, the company whose payment services were touted (by at least some) as a credit card killer. News came Monday (March 25) that Apple – specifically, through its payments service Apple Pay – has launched the Apple Card. As reported, the company said users sign up for the card through their iPhone, can get approval through the device and can begin using the card immediately.

Technology 81

Technology Gaming Retail 81

PYMNTS

MARCH 25, 2019

To help meet customer expectations in the digital age, retailers have to know who their shoppers are and what they want. While eTailers already have this information about consumers, brick-and-mortar retailers don’t have this in-depth knowledge. New digital innovations, however, provide the promise of offering valuable customer data to merchants. Smart vending solutions are becoming more popular and offer merchants new opportunities for insights, according to the latest PYMNTS Unattended Retail

Retail 79

Retail Kentucky Texas Technology 79

PYMNTS

MARCH 25, 2019

Most of the payments chatter last week focused on FIS’ mega acquisition of Worldpay. The topic of conversation was the inevitable consolidation of the payments sector, as scale becomes critical to optimizing the payments experience and innovating new payments flows. Another piece of Worldpay news broke last week that has as much potential to innovate new payments flows and shape the direction of commerce in the decade of the 20s, now only nine months away.

Sports 79

Sports Retail Healthcare Start-ups 79

PYMNTS

MARCH 28, 2019

There are no incumbent banks that are not paying attention to what the challenger banks are doing. What might have been written off even five years ago as a fad for digital financial services companies, or a niche product for a subset of consumers, is now “top of mind” for banks of all sizes, Jim Priestley, chief revenue officer at Feedzai , told PYMNTS in a recent conversation.

Technology 78

Technology Minnesota Start-ups accounted 78

PYMNTS

MARCH 25, 2019

The numbers are sobering. Even staggering. When it comes to financial crime, it seems, the bad guys are getting away with financial murder. Consider the fact that, as noted in the most recent AML/KYC Tracker produced as a collaboration between PYMNTS and Trulioo , money laundering is estimated by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to be an $800 million to $2 trillion-per-year problem, equivalent to 2 percent to 5 percent of the global GDP.

Technology 78

Technology Sports accounting and finance Government 78

PYMNTS

MARCH 28, 2019

It started, arguably, with mass transit , though with many bumps along the way, as the problems are slowly being solved while still bedeviling many cities. But transit will very likely be key – whether that means subways, buses or other, more individual forms of motion, such as rideshares or even scooters. It will certainly involve parking, and then tolls, and then other forms of commerce tied to transportation.

Alabama 78

Alabama Transportation Maine Government 78

PYMNTS

MARCH 26, 2019

Apple is reportedly blocking its person-to-person credit card payment service unless a user gets a new Apple Card. According to a report in Cult of Mac , as of Tuesday (March 25), you can no longer send a payment to another person using your credit card via Apple Pay Cash unless its the company’s credit card. The report noted users are still able to send payments via a debit card or via bank transfer.

Entertainment 76

Entertainment 76

PYMNTS

MARCH 26, 2019

Citi’s Treasury and Trade Solutions , a unit of Citi, announced Tuesday (March 26) it is developing a new business unit that will enable consumers to make digital payments to institutions. In a press release , Citi’s Treasury and Trade Solutions said it’s part of its aim to enable digital commerce for clients and to expand beyond the wholesale payments market.

E-commerce 76

E-commerce B2B Technology 76

PYMNTS

MARCH 26, 2019

In 2015, news outlets ran articles about the “ gold mine ” of venture capital investments in the alternative finance sector. The industry indeed proved to be lucrative for FinTechs, with alternative lending often landing at the top of venture capital investment reports with giants like Kabbage , OnDeck and LendingClub securing an early lead in the industry.

Technology 76

Technology Finance B2B 76

PYMNTS

MARCH 28, 2019

ICBA Bancard, the payments services subsidiary of the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), announced a new partnership with MK Decision (MK) for its online loan-origination system. In a press release , ICBA Bancard said the partnership with MK Decision streamlines its credit card application process to make it easier for customers when shopping and applying for cards.

Technology 76

Technology Education 76

PYMNTS

MARCH 28, 2019

Along any avenue of technology, there is hope … and there is hype … and then there is reality. Blockchain has long been in the process of being divorced – operationally as well as conceptually – from its crypto connection. The hope has been that as blockchain moves beyond bitcoin , the decentralized way of moving data, assets and communications would find a wide berth in business.

Technology 74

Technology Finance 74

PYMNTS

MARCH 29, 2019

Close to 1 billion email accounts were leaked by a marketing company in what some researchers are calling the “biggest and most comprehensive email database” breach ever. The Daily Mail reported that personal information from 982 million email accounts included names, gender, dates of birth, employers and even home addresses in the database. The info did not contain passwords or credit card details.

Account 74

Account accounted accountant 74

PYMNTS

MARCH 29, 2019

New research from UBS points to the largest spenders on bank technology: JPMorgan and Bank of America. Reports in Business Insider on Thursday (March 28) said UBS has published a report that breaks down U.S. banks’ technology budgets and explores which institutions are spending the most on innovation, using transcripts from conference calls, internal bank data released by the institutions and data from FactSet to reach its conclusions.

Technology 72

Technology B2B 72

PYMNTS

MARCH 25, 2019

The current best-in-class method of payment for a ride on a subway in any American city works just fine – until it doesn’t. Loading funds onto a prepaid card that opens the turnstile once scanned, swiped or inserted works terrifically well – until the customer forgets to check the balance on his transit pass, and finds himself locked out at the turnstile.

New York 71

New York Start-ups Technology Transportation 71

PYMNTS

MARCH 29, 2019

Demand for instant and peer-to-peer (P2P) payments is heating up, and financial institutions (FIs) are seeking to cater to that need, knowing that if they don’t, their customers are likely to turn elsewhere. This month’s Faster Payments Tracker explores the latest developments, as FIs and other companies seek to provide or tap into accelerated payment services.

payroll 71

payroll Gaming Technology Maine 71

PYMNTS

MARCH 23, 2019

“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.”. – Gene Roddenberry. If Helen of Troy had a face that launched a thousand ships, then Gene Roddenberry had the pen that launched a thousand ships.

New York 71

New York Start-ups Technology Gaming 71

PYMNTS

MARCH 26, 2019

It’s a $2 trillion problem, according to stats, and global in scope. Money laundering is big business and the recovered funds are scant, which begs a solution (a roadmap was offered up for FIs in a recent PYMNTS interview with Zac Cohen , Trulioo general manager). Elsewhere, Mastercard is targeting contactless payments on a mass scale – for mass transit , rolling out across additional cities through the next few years.

Start-ups 70

Start-ups 70

PYMNTS

MARCH 28, 2019

Line , the Asian messaging company majority owned by Naver, the South Korean Internet search company, is expanding its business into payments and other FinTech services. In an interview with the The Financial Times , Shin Jung-ho, the founder of the company said Line is expanding into cashless payments and FinTech in an effort to not remain complacent or stagnant.

Gaming 69

Gaming 69

PYMNTS

MARCH 26, 2019

Globalization and easing barriers to international expansion aren’t simply changing the way corporates manage foreign exchange exposure. For many firms, these trends are forcing the introduction of an FX strategy on a company for the very first time, and when corporate treasurers aren’t prepared, they can run into complications beyond the cost of currency exchange.

Technology 69

Technology accounted Account accountant 69

PYMNTS

MARCH 27, 2019

U.K.-based payments company Worldpay said it will expand to Australia and New Zealand in an effort to take on more established payments services like Visa, Mastercard and American Express, according to report by Reuters. The move to Australia is an effort to capitalize on the country’s thriving eCommerce industry, which is worth almost $30 billion and rising.

Gaming 68

Gaming Retail 68

PYMNTS

MARCH 29, 2019

The marketplace economy — name a vertical within that space, whether it’s ride-hailing, project design or eCommerce — is growing by leaps and bounds, crossing borders and (at times) regulatory jurisdictions. To gain critical mass, online marketplaces that are just starting out need to onboard as many customers and suppliers as possible to ignite. However, the two sides of any given transaction may never see one another, so trust is crucial.

Technology 68

Technology Government accounted Account 68

PYMNTS

MARCH 29, 2019

IPOs are everywhere, it seems, but Lyft may be a special case. Yes, Levi Strauss was a star earlier in the month, with a debut on the public markets that sent the 160+-year-old firm’s shares up more than 30 percent on the first day of trading. Now comes Lyft. At this writing, post the stock market’s open, the company brought a bit more than 32 million shares to market, with an initial price of $78, notably above the $62 to $68 range that had marked the beginning of the week and pricing indicatio

Transportation 67

Transportation Start-ups Retail 67

PYMNTS

MARCH 29, 2019

Point-of-sale financing is quickly becoming an attractive feature for consumers shopping online and in-store. Retail giants like Walmart are working with FinTechs to extend POS financing to customers, allowing shoppers to finance their purchases without accessing external credit that could impact credit scores. For sellers, POS financing can mean lower cart abandonment rates and happier customers.

B2B 66

B2B Finance B2C Sales 66

PYMNTS

MARCH 26, 2019

Private equity firm Bridgepoint is reportedly readying a $1.2 billion acquisition of treasury management technology firm Kyriba , according to Private Equity News reports on Monday (March 25). The publication, citing unnamed sources, said Bridgepoint has struck an agreement with Kyriba for the acquisition that will land a 75 percent stake in the firm.

Technology 66

Technology accounting manager account management accounted 66

PYMNTS

MARCH 28, 2019

For SWIFT, gpi continues to gain traction. The global financial messaging service said last week that six Spanish banks – covering roughly 85 percent of the cross-border payments market tied to that country – have signed on to SWIFT global payments innovation (gpi for short). The new banks include Banco Sabadell, Banco Santander, Bankinter, BBVA, CaixaBank and Grupo Cooperativo Cajamar.

accounted 66

accounted Account accountant B2B 66

PYMNTS

MARCH 26, 2019

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) is giving rise to more questions about its ethical use. Now, Google ’s parent company, Alphabet , is creating what Reuters called “a global advisory council to consider ethical issues around artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.”. The group includes AI experts, as well as people with experience in digital ethics, public policy and other such areas, the report said.

Technology 66

Technology California Retail Government 66

PYMNTS

MARCH 26, 2019

Back in the day fast food and other QSR operations were not exactly known as centers of cutting-edge technology. Now QSR operations are getting smart, so to speak, via artificial intelligence (AI) technology. The trend is still in its early days — as is the general case with AI deployments in most areas of the digital economy — but evidence of the trend’s strength recently came from McDonald’s.

Technology 65

Technology Sales Start-ups 65

PYMNTS

MARCH 25, 2019

And so a tech giant gets into the credit card game. And not just any tech giant – it’s Apple, the company whose payment services were touted (by at least some) as a credit card killer. News came Monday (March 25) that Apple – specifically, through its payments service Apple Pay – has launched the Apple Care credit card. As reported, the company said users sign up for the card through their iPhone, can get approval through the device and can begin using the card immediately.

Technology 65

Technology Gaming Retail 65

PYMNTS

MARCH 25, 2019

To connect food delivery platforms with consumers looking for convenience and cost savings, eCommerce innovators are creating aggregators as price and time comparison tools. Take FoodBoss , which was co-founded by Michael DiBenedetto after he faced a challenge when he wanted to order food with a group. “We didn’t know which restaurants worked with what services” and didn’t know the delivery fees or times associated with particular options, DiBenedetto told PYMNTS in an interview.

Washington 64

Washington Sales Technology Retail 64