2016

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Seeing What’s Next Through The Chaotic Present

PYMNTS

“It’s better to be a dog in a peaceful time, than to be a human in a chaotic period,” is the literal translation of what has been proffered over the years as English translation of the Chinese saying “May you live in interesting times.”. That, of course depends on who you ask. I recently asked Paul Galant, CEO of Verifone. From his days as CEO of Enterprise Payments at Citi to now CEO of the world’s largest electronic POS technology provider, Galant has seen and lived thru a number of interestin

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Press Release – NAADA Fall Meeting

Downey&Company

For Immediate Release: For further information, contact: Christine Morrison, (800) 849-6022. Braintree, Massachusetts – Paul McGovern, CPA, and James M. Downey, CPA, of Downey & Company, LLP, an accounting and business consulting firm, recently returned from the Fall Meeting of the National Alliance of Auto Dealer Advisors in Nashville, Tennessee.

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Killer Apps That Will Help You Take Your Office Wherever You Are

DuctTapeMarketing

 Services Online Audit. Strategy First. Marketing Training for your team. Website Review. Local Marketing System. Professional Services Marketing. A la carte SEO. Websites. Pay Per Click. Guides Local Marketing. Professional Services. Consulting Business. Marketing Strategy Plan. Content Marketing. Customer Journey. Referrals. Mobile Marketing.

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Viber UK Users Can Send Money Thanks To Western Union

PYMNTS

Western Union, the global payment services company, announced Wednesday (Dec. 7) it is enhancing its relationship with Viber, the mobile messaging app that counts 745 million unique users around the globe. In a press release , Western Union said it is enhancing its existing relationship with Viber by enabling Viber users in the U.K. to send money domestically and internationally to more than 200 countries and territories via the Viber app.

Start-ups 105
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Forecasting Failures Are Costly: Here's How To Fix Them

Speaker: Dave Sackett

Traditional budgeting and forecasting methods can no longer keep pace with today’s rapidly evolving business environment. Static budgets, rigid annual forecasts, and outdated financial models limit an organization’s ability to adapt to market shifts and economic uncertainty. To stay ahead, finance leaders must leverage a future-forward approach—one that leverages real-time data, predictive analytics, and continuous planning to drive smarter financial decisions.

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How To ‘Moneyball’ Restaurants

PYMNTS

National treasure Kim Kardashian has taught us all a series of invaluable lessons over the years: how to break the internet, that there is no such thing as too much eyeliner and that, if you are on the phone with Taylor Swift, the smart money is on hitting the record button. But of all the lessons we have learned from Kim — and later, Kimye — the most crucial, deepest and most fundamental is that, if one can get themselves behind the velvet rope, one should do so because life in the VIP suite is

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Fraudsters Bilk Bankers Out Of $32M

PYMNTS

Investment bankers in Hong Kong were tricked out of millions of dollars by a cash-advance business called Global Merchant Funding (GMF). According to Bloomberg , smooth-talking fraudster Avery Stone and his partners at GMF convinced bankers from prominent international banks to invest in the business to the tune of $32.5 million before disappearing. “This isn’t a deal that went bad; these guys systematically preyed off their friends,” Thomas Gallagher, a GMF investor, told Bloomberg.

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Diwali Lights Up Bitcoin

PYMNTS

It’s not yet the holidays, but it’s almost Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, a fitting theme for today’s bitcoin news. Diwali lasts for five days beginning Oct. 20, and bright lights, colorful decorations and fireworks mark the occasion. The Indian people celebrate by lighting diyas and candles around the home, seeking divine blessings from the goddess of wealth and exchanging gifts, such as gold coins.

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iPayYou Brings Bitcoin To Amazon

PYMNTS

Bitcoin wallet iPayYou continues to work toward a future with bitcoin as the default currency. It was just announced that iPayYou has made a way for consumers to pay for items on Amazon with bitcoin, called Amazon Direct. Now iPayYou users can transfer any amount of bitcoin from their bitcoin wallet to Amazon. Customers can use the Amazon Direct tab to the iPayYou platform to determine an amount of bitcoin to transfer and the destination account.

Retail 98
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Mastercard And Visa Tag-Team Tokens

PYMNTS

Tokenization as a global standard for securing transactions in a digital world gets turbocharged today. In a mutual commitment to accelerating the adoption of an open digital wallet, global card networks Mastercard and Visa announce their agreement to allow each network to request tokenized credentials from the other when consumers are transacting across any digital medium — in app, online and in store.

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How Citi FinTech Is Living Up To Its Name

PYMNTS

It’s not easy being big. Or being big and regulated. Among other things, it makes running a footrace with FinTech startups — tough. Big and regulated banks — especially these days — are not set up to sprint. Decades of legacy infrastructure and a web of regulations make it tough to adopt a “move fast and break things” mantra — even if the regulators would allow it.

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Are Robots Replacing You? Keeping Humans in the Loop in Automated Environments

Speaker: Erroll Amacker

As businesses increasingly adopt automation, finance leaders must navigate the delicate balance between technology and human expertise. This webinar explores the critical role of human oversight in accounts payable (AP) automation and how a people-centric approach can drive better financial performance. Join us for an insightful discussion on how integrating human expertise into automated workflows enhances decision-making, reduces fraud risks, strengthens vendor relationships, and accelerates R

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Got Gigs?

PYMNTS

Toasting new employment? Odds are increasingly good that you may be clinking your glass over your latest gig. The number of Americans working gig jobs — or short-term, ad hoc positions — grew at a rate of 50 percent from 2005 to 2010, while the gig economy gained 9.4 million new workers, outpacing the U.S. economy as a whole. But there is still much not known about this rapidly expanding portion of the economy, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics stopped collecting data on gigs in 2005 and won’t b

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Is Being Closed On Thanksgiving The New Trend?

PYMNTS

Is closing on Thanksgiving day becoming the new being open on Thanksgiving day? This week, Mall of America, the nation’s largest shopping mall, announced it was bucking the recent trend of opening stores to shoppers on Thanksgiving. Instead, Mall of America said it would close on Thanksgiving so its 14,000 or so employees could have the day off to spend time with their family, although the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that the more than 520 stores inside Mall of America will have the option

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Walmart Launches Blockchain Technology For Pork And Produce

PYMNTS

Blockchain has officially entered the grocery aisles. Walmart has announced that it is now testing new blockchain technology to track and trace produce in U.S. stores and pork in China. PYMNTS covered the testing and lead-up to the kickoff back in November. Now, the technology and use of it are even closer. It’s a pilot program, where sliced apples and cut broccoli will be used to test the blockchain database technology for four months starting in the first quarter of 2017.

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Mastercard Says Fraud Costs Dropped 54% Since (EMV) October 2015

PYMNTS

One year into the shift to chip-enabled cards — for the U.S., that is — Mastercard said on Monday (Sept. 12) that data shows a “ positive impact ” through the technology across stakeholders, including issuing banks, consumers and merchants. In reference to fraud — the very activity that the cards are designed to thwart — Mastercard stated that fraud data shows a 54 percent decrease in counterfeit fraud costs at retailers who have either completed or are close to completing EMV transitions, as me

Retail 92
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Book of Secrets on the Month-End Close

Based off SkyStem's popular e-Book, the book of secrets to the month-end close will be revealed in this one-hour webinar. Learn leading practices when it comes to building a strong and sustainable month-end close that has room to grow and evolve. Learn about the power of precise estimates, why reconciliations are critical to closing the books, how and when to automate, and how the chart of accounts play into your close process.

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Visa Acquires CardinalCommerce

PYMNTS

Visa announced today that it will acquire eCommerce payment authentication leader CardinalCommerce. The move is expected to enable Visa’s global clients and partners to accelerate, scale and secure digital commerce as payments expands to include billions upon billions of connected endpoints. Mark Nelsen, senior vice president of risk and authentication products at Visa, said that the “strategic acquisition combines Visa’s industry expertise and Cardinal’s critical role in payment authentication

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Hackers Take Crimeware-As-A-Service To New Heights

PYMNTS

Botnet attacks are not only growing in popularity among hackers, but they are also delivering a new level of sophistication and danger to businesses and consumers worldwide. In this week’s Hacker Tracker , PYMNTS caught up with security experts at digital security products provider Avast Software to gain insight into the rise of Crimeware-as-a-Service and why the industry should be taking notice of the growing threat of malicious botnets, like Avalanche and Mirai.

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When The POS Is The OS

PYMNTS

It may be easy to see First Data’s SMB POS Clover sitting on a merchant’s countertop and assume it’s just another nice-looking terminal that accepts payments. But as John Beatty , CEO and cofounder of Clover for First Data , explained, that would be overlooking what Clover really is — an operating platform that helps an SMB run its business, eliminating the need for the SMB to have multiple devices on the countertop that support other business-critical applications. “We’re starting to see

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Amex Acquires InAuth

PYMNTS

The American Express that exists today would look pretty foreign to its first employees of 166 years ago — since, to state the obvious, a lot has changed over that period of time. Long before American Express was a credit card issuer and a closed loop payments network, it was in the business of moving mail (and other things) quickly from one coast to the other.

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How To Break Digital Transformation Barriers And Accelerate AI Adoption

Speaker: Anna Tiomina, MBA

AI is reshaping industries, yet finance remains one of the slowest adopters. Concerns over compliance, legacy systems, and data silos have made finance teams hesitant to embrace AI-driven transformation. But delaying adoption isn’t just about efficiency—it’s about staying competitive in a rapidly evolving landscape. How can finance leaders overcome these challenges and start leveraging AI effectively?

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Payments Takes The (NFL Football) Field

PYMNTS

Payments take the football field, but consumers call the plays. That’s how Dan Charron , EVP and Head of Global Business Solutions for First Data , sees it and how he describes the latest rollout of its commerce technology solution at CenturyLink Field Event Center and CenturyLink Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks , aimed at taking the fan experience to the next level.

Gaming 90
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The Uber Of Fitness Trainers: Handstand

PYMNTS

Did you know that physical trainers and fitness instructors only get paid a very small fraction of the cost you pay the gym per hour? After they’ve pushed you to do a hundred burpees or gotten you to achieve that perfect yoga Crow Pose, they may end up with only $20. When your endorphins wear off, you’ll also notice that your wallet could be a $150 per hour lighter.

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Weird Commerce: MUFON, Investigating UFOs Since 1969

PYMNTS

Ever seen a UFO? Could it have really been a bird, plane or you-know-who? That’s where 47-year-old nonprofit MUFON comes in to debunk or detail what you saw. “Sometimes, people say they saw a UFO, and immediately, people think they said, ‘I saw a flying saucer,’” said Rodger Roeser, spokesperson for MUFON, which literally investigates unidentified flying objects.

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The Coming Millennial FinTech Crisis

PYMNTS

It’s a fact. While they enjoy many FinTech innovations, most millennials don’t have a snowball’s chance of earning more than their parents — ever. How big the income gap between those 70 million people and their parents depends on a few things, including how well-heeled their parents are. Not surprisingly, hardest hit are the kids born to middle and lower middle-income families — so, roughly 70 percent of the U.S. population.

Retail 88
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New Software & You: Elevating Your Tech Stack

Speaker: Joe Wroblewski, Senior Sales Engineer

Is your tech stack working for you—or are you working for it ? 🤖 In today’s world of automation and AI, technology should simplify workflows—not add complexity. Seamless integration and interconnectivity are key to maximizing productivity, optimizing workflows, and improving collaboration. Join expert Joe Wroblewski for a practical and insightful session on how you can build a smarter, more connected tech stack that drives efficiency and long-term success!

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Weird Commerce: Skulls Unlimited, A Living Company From Animal Remains

PYMNTS

Coyote, bobcat, armadillo and … human skulls. Perhaps counterintuitively, Skulls Unlimited , a company that sells skulls — yes, animal and human skulls — sees its biggest uptick in purchases closer to Christmas, rather than before Halloween. “This time of year, we start getting in more orders. Halloween, not as much, but most people looking for Halloween decorations quickly realize that we’re not offering skulls for that purpose,” said Josh Villemarette , co-owner and son of the fou

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Yahoo’s Massive Breach Could Affect Hundreds Of Millions Of Users

PYMNTS

If recent emerging reports are accurate, the team at Yahoo is about to bring new meaning to the phrase “having a tough morning.” Yahoo is apparently on the verge of reporting a massive data breach of its service — a giant hack that has exposed the data behind hundreds of millions of user accounts. At this point, that is about all that is known on the hack: Several sources close to the situation were not able to say much more about it other than commenting on its scale and the fact th

Legal 87
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More Retailers Just Saying No To Opening On Thanksgiving

PYMNTS

Though for a few years there it really looked like it might simply become retail standard, it seems that starting the Thanksgiving weekend sales crush on Thanksgiving may fizzle out after all. According to reporting over the weekend, an increasing number of big retailers are actually taking the national day of thanksgiving off. So far, the known opt-outs include Home Depot, Nordstrom , Costco, BJ’s, Fred’s Pharmacy, GameStop, Harbor Freight, Lowe’s, Pier 1 Imports, Petco, PetSmart, Sam’s C

Retail 87
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Can Optimove Change The Apathetic CRM Space?

PYMNTS

Small and medium-sized businesses eager to attract and retain loyal customers are even more eager to harness the power of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Software based on these technologies can make predictions on customers’ behavior, assess their potential as repeat purchasers and automate communications that will stimulate buying behavior, or even do it for them.

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The Human Side of Finance: The Intersectionality of People, Culture, Adaptability, and Resilience

Speaker: Melissa Hurrington

Finance isn’t just about the numbers. It’s about the people behind them. In a world of constant disruption, resilient finance teams aren’t just operationally efficient. They are adaptable, engaged, and deeply connected to a strong organizational culture. Success lies at the intersection of people, culture, adaptability, and resilience. Finance leaders who master this balance will build teams that thrive through uncertainty and drive long-term business impact.

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Mastercard’s Call To Digital Payments Action

PYMNTS

Fact. Digital commerce has been a reality for more than two decades. Fact. The launch of the iPhone in 2007 and the App Store in 2008 opened everyone’s eyes to the impact that mobile would have on payments and commerce. Fact. Twenty years and hundreds of millions of smartphones later, the digital payments experience is anything but consistent anywhere — online, in-store and in-app.

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New Tracker: Business Banking’s Mobile Momentum Mounts

PYMNTS

American consumers have fallen for mobile banking apps, but up to now, most businesses were not seemingly showing apps the same love. With the number of mobile banking customers now outnumbering those who bank at branches for the first time, consumers have warmly embraced banking via mobile apps. Despite that, the vast majority of American companies, particularly small businesses, have yet to adopt mobile financial management apps.

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Nearly Two-Thirds Of Americans Already Own An IoT Device

PYMNTS

The Internet of Things may be a burgeoning industry, but according to a new survey by IAB, nearly two-thirds of American consumers, or 62 percent, already own at least one IoT device. What’s more, 65 percent of those surveyed who own IoT devices said they are willing to receive ads on their IoT screens. In a press release highlighting the survey results, IAB said 62 percent of survey respondents said they already see ads on IoT -connected gadgets.

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The Millennials Are Coming (To Get A Mortgage)

PYMNTS

Millennials just aren’t buying homes — they are the first generation of Americans since World War II who will meaningfully move away from that vision of the American Dream. Millennial homeownership rates — for those 75.4 million or so young adults between the ages of 19 and 35 — was far below historical averages and about a fifth of home ownership rate in the same age group at the turn of the 21st century.

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Maximizing Profit and Productivity: The New Era of AI-Powered Accounting

Speaker: Yohan Lobo and Dennis Street

In the accounting world, staying ahead means embracing the tools that allow you to work smarter, not harder. Outdated processes and disconnected systems can hold your organization back, but the right technologies can help you streamline operations, boost productivity, and improve client delivery. Dive into the strategies and innovations transforming accounting practices.