PYMNTS
SEPTEMBER 6, 2016
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Mastercard and PayPal have inked a strategic partnership similar to the one that PayPal and Visa inked earlier this year. As part of this partnership, Mastercard will be presented as a visible payment option to PayPal customers, with prominent issuer branding, implying that PayPal will no longer encourage Mastercard customers to link their bank accounts to PayPal via ACH.
PYMNTS
SEPTEMBER 8, 2016
With increasingly few exceptions, the ranks of the unbanked seem to be on the decline, according to new data released by the FDIC. The percentage of Americans going without banking services fell to 7 percent in 2015 from 7.7 percent in 2013. According to FDIC data, unbanked American consumers peaked toward the end of the Great Recession in 2011 at 8.2 percent.
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PYMNTS
SEPTEMBER 8, 2016
Looking for that ultra-sexy flyover video of your business? Shootly is the mobile app to shoot for. Dubbed the “Uber of photography and droneography,” Cofounder and CEO Garrett Henricksen says he already has more than 25 photographers and a dozen drone pilots ready to meet your photography needs. Whether you’re a real estate agent looking for the flyover money shot, an event planner looking to show off the glitz from tonight’s red carpet production or just a regular joe looking for s
PYMNTS
SEPTEMBER 6, 2016
Let’s face it, data analysis can be a costly and time-consuming affair and can sometimes take weeks or months of scouring through troves and troves of data from a number of channels, like sales, surveys, customer reviews and social media, to even interpret how consumers might be responding to a certain brand or product. Then, of course, there’s always the chance that human error or bias could lead to the wrong interpretation or understanding of the data as well.
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
SEPTEMBER 9, 2016
Residents in Vancouver are getting a little more convenience in their lives thanks to a new app that lets them pay for their meals. According to a report , the co-creator of PayByPhone, a parking app that lets you use your mobile phone to pay for parking, has launched Glance Pay , a mobile app for people who eat out. The app enables diners to pay for dinner at 46 restaurants in Vancouver.
PYMNTS
SEPTEMBER 8, 2016
With the Same Day ACH rollout just weeks away, financial institutions are working to make sure that Faster Payments in the United States are not plagued by the same problems they were across the pond. When the U.K. rolled out Faster Payments a few years ago, fraud spiked, as fraudsters acted quickly to take advantage of the reduced timeframe. Often, hackers and bad actors would try to sneak fraudulent transactions past banks when they are at their busiest, particularly when a financial instituti
Accountant Advocate brings together the best content for small business accounting professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
PYMNTS
SEPTEMBER 5, 2016
Bitcoin is going a bit more mainstream and may be part of your daily morning jolt. As NewsBTC reported, eGifter , the online gift card platform, is supporting Dunkin’ Donuts cards, and as part of that support, customers can pay with bitcoin. Thus, distributed ledger technology is making inroads across payments technology and crullers, too. The bitcoin payments option is offered across the spectrum of eGifter’s prepaid card pantheon, encompassing more than 200 brands.
PYMNTS
SEPTEMBER 6, 2016
In its ongoing efforts to expand the bounds of what can — or should — be a wearable, Samsung’s latest possible edition is currently being vetted by the sober minds at Kickstarter. Called the Welt, the smart belt made its first public appearance at the Consumer Electronics show in January — it’s now on Kickstarter with an estimated date of delivery in January of 2017.
PYMNTS
SEPTEMBER 9, 2016
Who knew that Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, known for their early involvement in Facebook, were in love with bitcoin? And do you care? You might, when you find out that they were the first to file for a bitcoin Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Some think that bitcoin ETFs will provide the ignition that bitcoin has been looking for.
PYMNTS
SEPTEMBER 8, 2016
Puppies and cute. Dentists and dread. Cross-border money transfer and murky. That’s often — and unfortunately — the word that most businesses associate with the process of receiving money from a sender from another part of the world. It’s a dimension of money transfer that is increasing in frequency and value as more people seek the services of institutions outside of their home country.
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
SEPTEMBER 6, 2016
Bitcoin activity has been relatively calm again this week, but that doesn’t means that there is a shortage of updates and opinion on its latest moves. A cryptocurrency engineer is creating a social media platform to allow content writers to be paid in bitcoin — a “Bitcoinbook” for Reddit users, if you will. Also, two bitcoin experts responded to central bank calls for assistance in lifting the global economy and suggested that cryptocurrencies are less risky than central bank fiscal policies.
PYMNTS
SEPTEMBER 9, 2016
Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg visited sub-Saharan Africa for the first time in August, shining a huge spotlight on the growing tech center within Nigeria. Not only did Zuckerberg’s visit bring a boost to Nigerian startups, but it solidified that the tech scene in Lagos may be one to watch out for. In this week’s edition of PYMNTS’ Weekly Tech Center Roundup , we take our first trip to Africa and check out the bursting tech ecosystem growing in Nigeria.
PYMNTS
SEPTEMBER 8, 2016
Online lender Social Finance Inc has clearly decided to embrace the “go big or go home” mantra with its latest push for funding in the face of generally waning enthusiasm about the whole tech-backed lending concept. SoF is is hoping to buck a recent trend by raising a whopping $500 million in equity to fund new growth initiatives among mass-market borrowers and international markets.
PYMNTS
SEPTEMBER 7, 2016
Payworks ‘ gateway technology, Pulse, wants to provide the lifeblood to point-of-sale transactions for merchants using EMV, contactless and mobile wallets. The company just announced $4.5 million in Series A funding from investors Rumford, HW Capital and Speedinvest. PYMNTS caught up with CEO Christian Deger to find out what keeps Payworks “pulsing” away in the global payments market of gateway providers.
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
SEPTEMBER 9, 2016
Over the last few years, PayPal has had the weird privilege of reading its own obituary an unusually large number of times — a somewhat surprising development given that the firm has been growing consistently for almost two decades. For a while there — particularly in the run-up to its split from long-time parent firm eBay and the immediate aftermath — there was a never-ending series of stories suggesting that Apple Pay would be PayPal’s demise or that the card networks/issuers were out to put
PYMNTS
SEPTEMBER 9, 2016
There was once a time when the butcher in town knew you by name, because that’s where you would always buy your meat, and the baker would have your two fresh-baked rye loaves, still hot, sitting on the counter ready for you to pick up on a Monday morning, because that’s where you always bought your bread. ETailers have a leg-up on retailers because they are recreating the shopping experiences of old.
PYMNTS
SEPTEMBER 6, 2016
Aiming to increase transparency and fairness around its video monetization, YouTube announced changes in a blog post last week. According to YouTube, the company started rolling out improved notifications in Video Manager in an effort to make it fairer and clarify confusion in the creator community around its longstanding advertiser-friendly guidelines.
PYMNTS
SEPTEMBER 5, 2016
Financial services firms have an opportunity to expand mobile payments and account management capabilities thanks to growth in wearable devices. Wearable devices may be in their early stage of adoption, but they are set to grow. According to market research firm International Data Corp., worldwide shipments of wearable devices are targeted to reach 213.6 million units in 2020.
Advertiser: Paycor
Great leadership development is the key to sustainable business growth. Are you ready to design an effective program? HR can use Paycor’s framework to: Set achievable goals. Align employee and company needs. Support different learning styles. Empower the next generation of leaders. Invest in your company’s future with a strong leadership development program.
PYMNTS
SEPTEMBER 7, 2016
The United Parcel Service (UPS) plans to raise shipping rates but will wait until after the holiday shopping season to do so, according to Retail Dive. The 4.9 percent rate hike will take effect on Dec. 26 on ground and shipping services, while the freight division will raise its shipping rates on Sept. 19. “UPS continues to make investments in the speed, scope and coverage of our transportation network.
PYMNTS
SEPTEMBER 6, 2016
For weeks now, analysts have warned that the U.K.’s dominance in FX trading is waning. Now, for the first time in more than a decade, the U.K.’s share of the global currencies trading market dropped to 37.1 percent, reports by Financial Times said late last week — that’s down from 41 percent in 2013. New data from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has also confirmed what analysts have been eyeing in recent months, too: Asia is rising to the top of the global FX trad
PYMNTS
SEPTEMBER 5, 2016
Despite recent efforts, it seems as though Alibaba ‘s counterfeiting controversy is determined to stick around. As of August, a variety of international trade groups have sent Alibaba a letter to inform it that its recent efforts are insufficient to quell the tidal wave of counterfeit goods that is currently flooding the various marketplaces Alibaba operates.
PYMNTS
SEPTEMBER 5, 2016
Falling asleep on public transportation can be dangerous. Falling asleep in an Uber car can be very costly. At least, that’s the experience of one Uber rider in the U.K. who got hit with a more than $100 bill for a short trip — all because she fell asleep. According to a report by Mashable , Hannah Warman, a London-based comedian, opted to take an Uber car home on Sunday (Aug. 28) night instead of making the short walk home.
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
SEPTEMBER 9, 2016
President Barack Obama had a stern warning for the world this week: The potential for an all-out cyber arms race is upon us. At the G20 international summit in China, President Obama told the media that, as countries continue to build up their arsenals of cyberweapons, the chance for a “free-for-all” to break out in the cyberspace is likely, unless everyone starts acting responsibly — and fast. “[We] cannot have a situation where this becomes the wild, wild West, where countries [that] hav
PYMNTS
SEPTEMBER 5, 2016
Summer is usually filled with torpor, slow movement and dreams of beaches and other idylls. Unless you’re in the payments space. No kicking back here. For us at PYMNTS, there was plenty to chew over and mull, and none of it came with ice cream, beach umbrellas or swizzle sticks. Some of the biggest headlines of the year came during the summer and involved marquee names that dominate eCommerce, many of which are in the midst of pushing into each other’s wheelhouses.
PYMNTS
SEPTEMBER 5, 2016
The Hispanic Millennial Project has found some patterns in the use of mobile payments technologies among this demographic. Reports on Friday (Sept. 2) said the research initiative revealed that Hispanic millennials, those aged 18–34, are embracing mobile payments technology. But there are other trends that emerge when the data is broken down even further.
PYMNTS
SEPTEMBER 8, 2016
A new report shows that, across the globe, there were more than 270 billion card payments in 2015, an increase of 15 percent over 2014. Such an increase, according to RBR’s Global Payment Cards Data and Forecasts to 2021, is almost double the 8 percent rise in card numbers alone. This trend underscores worldwide initiatives to move away from cash payments altogether.
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
SEPTEMBER 8, 2016
Maybe millennials really are a self-centered bunch? New data suggests that they are buying more gift cards than ever before but then turning around and spending those cards on themselves. Millennials and women are fueling a surge in sales of retailer-specific gift cards, but it seems that they are purchasing more of these gift cards for themselves than to give away to others, as more and more retailers and brands entice consumers with loyalty rewards when they purchase these types of gift cards
PYMNTS
SEPTEMBER 8, 2016
Apple Pay is expanding, announcing a slew of new banks and credit unions in the U.S. that it now supports. According to Apple’s updated Apple Pay support document , it has added more than 20 banks and credit unions in the U.S. Some of the financial firms include First National Bank of Aspermont, Patterson State Bank, Allegiance Credit Union, First New York Federal Credit Union, Pioneer Bank FSB, Anchor D Bank, Glendale Federal Credit Union, Bank of the West, Bay Atlantic Federal Credit Union and
PYMNTS
SEPTEMBER 7, 2016
It’s been several months since superstar basketball player and former MVP Kevin Durant sent shockwaves through the NBA world by announcing he was leaving the team that drafted him — for whom he had only ever played in free agency — to sign with rival Golden State Warriors. Durant’s decision to abandon the Oklahoma City Thunder also set up the odd dynamic of establishing two of the NBA’s most popular and marketable players — Durant and two-time reigning NBA MVP Steph Curry — on the same team in t
PYMNTS
SEPTEMBER 9, 2016
Artificial intelligence (AI) is getting super-intelligent these days. While Amazon’s Alexa already doesn’t need your voice to function , Google now says its DeepMind unit has crafted a system for machine-generated speech that’s so smart it outperforms the existing technology by at least 50 percent. This means your mobile phone will soon know what you’re saying the first time.
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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