PYMNTS
OCTOBER 7, 2016
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.
PYMNTS
OCTOBER 5, 2016
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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PYMNTS
OCTOBER 4, 2016
While the emerging world of mobile payments has allowed us to collectively envision a world where payments goes far outside good old fashioned plastic, it is likely the case that very few people ever imagined that they would literally be able to use their face to pay. Or, more accurately, to verify their identity such that a payment can be completed.
PYMNTS
OCTOBER 3, 2016
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
Speaker: Victor C. Barnes, CPA, MBA
In the climb from contributor to leader, the rules quietly change. But if you’re aiming for the summit, the air gets thinner, and what got you here won’t be enough to get you to the top. 🗻 What made you successful early in your finance career—technical accuracy, sharp analysis, flawless execution—won’t be what carries you to the next level. The higher you go, the more your effectiveness depends on how you connect, adapt, and communicate.
PYMNTS
OCTOBER 5, 2016
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.
PYMNTS
OCTOBER 7, 2016
Oberthur Technologies (OT) is partnering with payments service provider Nets to deliver support for mobile payments to Scandinavian banks. The collaboration, announced on Thursday (Oct. 6), is aimed at helping to service banks in the Nordics with a financial platform that supports future international mobile payment methods. Nets and OT will combine their capabilities to offer an end-to-end mobile payment solution, which will include Host Card Emulation (HCE) and tokenization to secure payments
Accountant Advocate brings together the best content for small business accounting professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
PYMNTS
OCTOBER 6, 2016
Apple Pay and Masterpass digital wallet technology are making their way to New York, with Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announcing the addition of the two payment methods to MTA eTix, the mobile ticketing app that enables Metro-North Railroad and Long Island Rail Road customers to buy tickets whenever they want. According to a report, starting Thursday (Oct. 6), customers will be able to use both services to buy one-way, round-trip, 10-trip, weekly and monthly passes and CityTickets on MTA eTix.
PYMNTS
OCTOBER 7, 2016
It appears Manchester may be giving London a run for its money as the next great FinTech sector in the U.K. In recent years, Manchester has been a go-to location for people looking to leave London — and it’s not just because of the city’s cheap housing or attractive work/life balance culture. It’s also the region’s thriving tech environment. In this edition of PYMNTS’ Weekly Tech Center Roundup , we head back to England to check out what unique characteristics are driving tech success in Manches
PYMNTS
OCTOBER 5, 2016
Blockchain technology has allowed businesses to eliminate unnecessary, not to mention costly, intermediaries and significantly reduce international cross-border payment processing time from weeks to a day. With these benefits in mind, blockchain has recently captured the attention of several players from around the faster payments space. From a social messaging platform getting a payments enhancement to a major credit card company testing a yet-to-be-released payment system, plenty of faster pay
PYMNTS
OCTOBER 7, 2016
According to research in Q3’s PYMNTS.com OmniReadi Index , wishlists, purchase histories and other similar features are some of the most important ingredients in retailers’ omnicommerce strategies. The index shows that the vast majority of leading merchants offer purchase histories and wishlists, while only a minority of the middle and lower tiers of retailers offer similar features.
Speaker: Kim Beynon, CPA, CGMA, PMP
The most overlooked, yet most critical, element of transformation is preparing people for change. Automation and AI aren't just technical upgrades, they’re cultural shifts which can challenge identities. That’s why change management isn’t a side project—it’s the foundation. In finance, where precision and process rule, navigating change can feel especially disruptive.
PYMNTS
OCTOBER 3, 2016
[link]. The wearable revolution is here. Or not. Depends on your perspective. Not long ago, research firm International Data Corp. said in the worldwide wearable tech device industry will have grown by 38 percent year over year in 2016, with 110 million units in the field by the end of the year. Lest you think that number is impressive, the search firm stated that the wearables uptake should increase to about 237 million by 2020.
PYMNTS
OCTOBER 7, 2016
Look no further than the recent Wells Fargo scandal or even the monumental Brexit decision to see how the regulatory space is heating up. Companies both big and small are looking across their regulatory frameworks to anticipate the impacts of these massive industry events. Stephen Ufford , founder and CEO of Trulioo , said businesses are focused on creating efficiencies in order to have room in their roadmap for the unknown, which also means they are consuming the tools available in the market t
PYMNTS
OCTOBER 7, 2016
Traditional banks now realize the value in working with FinTech startups, augmenting their own service offerings by integrating the innovations of others. Lending has become one of the largest benefactors of this trend, with alternative lenders once viewed as competitors to the banks now working with them to strengthen financing options for SME borrowers.
PYMNTS
OCTOBER 5, 2016
Each week it seems blockchain just gets another endorsement. This week? Richard Branson. The billionaire and Virgin Group founder said blockchain will create an “ economic revolution ,” especially in developing countries. His reasoning revolves around the issue of proving ownership of certain assets and access to capital. Pointing to economist Hernando de Soto’s work and a partnership with bitcoin and blockchain company Bitfury and the Republic of Georgia’s National Agency of
Speaker: Mark Gilham, FCCA, CPP
Finance used to be the function that counted, now it's the one that’s counted on. 📊 For accounting firms, controllers, and finance leaders, expectations are rising faster than headcount. Businesses want agile forecasts, granular analysis, seamless reporting, and smart automation—often without added resources while demanding uncompromised accuracy and compliance.
PYMNTS
OCTOBER 4, 2016
The volume of the global point-of-sale terminal market was more than $43 billion in 2015 and is set to grow to $100 billion by the end of 2023. The retail POS market is expected to grow to more than $30 billion by that time, according to new research from Global Market Insights. According to the research firm, the global industry is expected to register CAGR of more than 18 percent during the timeframe.
PYMNTS
OCTOBER 3, 2016
No one is immune from digital fraud. There’s always a fraudster waiting in the wings to spoil the party. Including professional sports. Ticketing, it turns out, is one of the areas that fraudsters seem to like a lot — fraudsters that want to make a quick buck and ticket brokers (AKA scalpers) who want to make quick and big bucks. In a recent live digital discussion hosted by Karen Webster , ThreatMetrix Chief Marketing Officer Armen Najarian and Chief Products Officer Alisdair Faulkner were joi
PYMNTS
OCTOBER 7, 2016
Capital One has reportedly inked a deal to acquire Paribus, a price tracking service, as the credit card company makes another acquisition in the FinTech space. According to a report , Paribus aids online shoppers in getting automatic refunds when the price drops on items they purchased. While the terms of the deal were not disclosed, the report noted the acquisition includes bringing the team of Paribus and its technology under the Capital One umbrella.
PYMNTS
OCTOBER 3, 2016
Google recently announced a new effort to increase its presence in the enterprise, rebranding its B2B units as Google Cloud and G Suite last week. On Friday (Sept. 30), Accenture announced that it formed an alliance with Google to take advantage of Google’s renewed focus on the space. The professional services company said it will use Google technology to provide industry-specific cloud, mobile and data analytics solutions for its clients that are built on Google infrastructure. “The
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PYMNTS
OCTOBER 3, 2016
A China-based blockchain company is celebrating a series of firsts for the distributed ledger space after raising $4.5 million via crowdsale. Used by bitcoin and blockchain companies to attract investment, crowdsale enable firms to issue tokens that represent shares in their firms, a tactic proponents say enables a sort of democratization of share buying and trading.
PYMNTS
OCTOBER 1, 2016
Groundbreaking, innovative, trailblazing — these aren’t the type of adjectives you would think of to describe the typical shopping cart that gets pushed around physical stores. In fact, most of them look pretty similar from store to store. But, then again, you probably haven’t seen what a few enterprising retailers are up to when it comes to giving these awkward, shin-bruising staples of the brick-and-mortar retail world a new, high tech lease on life.
PYMNTS
OCTOBER 5, 2016
South African FinTech Peach Payments announced on Wednesday (Oct. 5) plans to expand its business to Kenya and Nigeria. The three-year-old startup, which facilitates online and mobile payments in emerging markets, confirmed it is processing more than R1-billion in transactions per year. Peach Payments recently launched a new service aimed at helping businesses collect invoices and payments globally, called PaySafe.
PYMNTS
OCTOBER 5, 2016
“One and done?” Or “sure to be more?”. Payments firms want the latter, to move beyond fleeting relationships with customers, and the same is true within the money transfer arena. The process of sending money around the world can be a laborious one, with forms to be filled out and data to be authenticated. The Tuesday (Oct. 4) debut of MoneyGram ’s digital money transfer service, MoneyGram MobilePass, is the the latest news focused on making transactions a bit more seamless, but also
Speaker: Cheryl J. Muldrew-McMurtry
Distributed finance teams are rewriting how the back-office runs, and attackers are taking notes. Disconnected workflows, process blind spots, and rising cyber threats are more than just growing pains—they’re liabilities. The challenge isn’t just going remote. It’s building resilient systems that protect accuracy, control, and speed across every transaction and touchpoint.
PYMNTS
OCTOBER 6, 2016
Entryless, a cloud-based financial network that allows small and medium-sized businesses to react more quickly to the needs of their buyers and suppliers, announced an integration with accountancy platform Sage Live. This integration will improve companies’ ability to pay bills and complete accounts seamlessly. In a press release, Entryless said businesses using this integration will be able to send bills and purchase invoices in any format to Entryless, which will then be captured in image form
PYMNTS
OCTOBER 5, 2016
The use of prepaid cards has exploded over the last decade or so — in 2003 consumers put less than $1 billion on prepaid cards annually, but by 2012 that figure had grown to $65 billion and by 2018 that figure is projected to reach as much as $121 billion. The user base of prepaid cards has grown significantly as well. The cards are largely associated with the 10 million or so unbanked families in the U.S. as one of their primary tools of financial management — since prepaid cards can be used i
PYMNTS
OCTOBER 6, 2016
Yahoo, which is reeling from a massive data breach , is reportedly facing a class-action lawsuit over it. According to a report , the company is facing two lawsuits, both filed in the U.S. District Court, since the massive breach was announced. “For Yahoo to lay the blame on state-sponsored entities for this data breach seems like nothing more than a PR stunt crafted to help the company avoid additional embarrassment and reputational damage,” said Danny Maher, CTO from U.K.
PYMNTS
OCTOBER 6, 2016
SWIFT’s year has been filled with controversy, the apex of which occurred when reports surfaced that cyberthieves infiltrated Bangladesh Bank via the SWIFT messaging system in February, resulting in $81 million stolen from the bank’s account at the New York Federal Reserve. Since, SWIFT has reported three new cyberbreaches that occurred over the summer.
Speaker: Frank Taliano
Documents are the backbone of enterprise operations, but they are also a common source of inefficiency. From buried insights to manual handoffs, document-based workflows can quietly stall decision-making and drain resources. For large, complex organizations, legacy systems and siloed processes create friction that AI is uniquely positioned to resolve.
PYMNTS
OCTOBER 3, 2016
Facebook has delivered somewhat of a face slap to eBay and Craigslist by announcing its new “Marketplace” section. The new section formalizes the buying and selling already ongoing on the platform’s “Groups” feature, and eBay stock has dropped 3.5 percent following the announcement, according to Seeking Alpha. This time, Facebook’s marketplace is geared to the mobile user, while the last version that launched nine years ago was for desktops only.
PYMNTS
OCTOBER 6, 2016
The majority of traditional businesses are worried about digital startups posing a threat to their organization, according to new research from Dell Technologies. According to Dell Technologies, 78 percent of businesses are threatened by digital startups , which is propelling innovative companies ahead and accelerating the demise of others. Close to half of companies surveyed by Dell, or 45 percent, fear they could become obsolete in the next three to five years because of competition from digit
PYMNTS
OCTOBER 3, 2016
It looks like the conventional wisdom of the last few years — that big hacks lead to big waves of customer defections — is turning out to be less right that one might assume. According to new data released by RAND researchers, consumers whose personal data has been compromised generally don’t feel much in the way of dissatisfaction over it — 77 percent of notified victims reported being content with how the company handled the breach and its follow-up notification.
PYMNTS
OCTOBER 7, 2016
The alternative lending market in the U.S. is not in its prime. Investors have backed off, regulation threatens to stunt the industry’s growth and, for many analysts, players in this space haven’t lived up to their expectations. But that hasn’t stopped the alternative lending sector from growing in size. Its newest market entrant, Plousio , made its debut with an announcement on Thursday (Oct. 6), revealing plans to launch a platform connecting lenders to small business borrowe
Speaker: Claire Grosjean, Global Finance & Operations Executive
Finance teams are drowning in data—but is it actually helping them spend smarter? Without the right approach, excess spending, inefficiencies, and missed opportunities continue to drain profitability. While analytics offers powerful insights, financial intelligence requires more than just numbers—it takes the right blend of automation, strategy, and human expertise.
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