Sat.Jun 16, 2018 - Fri.Jun 22, 2018

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Amid Hacks, Bitcoin Is Still Not Ready For Primetime

PYMNTS

What’s a currency to do when it can take down the internet ? Gain in price, amid growing clamor for it, of course. No need to trace the minute details of bitcoin’s pricing. $6,500 or $6,600. Maybe more. Maybe less, and maybe a lot more or a lot less. Check back with us in a few minutes! Beyond the vagaries of price — where some watch technicals, looking for a “floor” or a “peak” and signs amid volatility and rolling averages — fundamentals matter.

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2018 Indiana Legislative Update: Take 2

Katz,Sapper&Miller

As the clock struck midnight Wednesday, March 14, chaos ensued at the Indiana Statehouse. Having not addressed several important topics – such as school safety, school finance, and tax reform – during the 2018 Indiana legislative session, Gov. Holcomb called the Indiana General Assembly back for a one-day special legislative session. This special session ended May 14 with the passage of only five bills.

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Frictionless Payments And Top Mobile Banking Innovation

PYMNTS

Banks are turning to digital technology to enhance the customer experience — and reduce payment friction — in an effort to boost top and bottom lines. In meetings and calls with analysts last week, executives from top banks such as Bank of America , JPMorgan Chase and Citi — along with payment companies such as Visa — explained how they are leveraging technology to drive innovation.

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BBVA Merges Two Units And Debuts Selfie Payment System

PYMNTS

As BBVA steps up its digital efforts, the bank is merging its Beeva and i4S units to form a company called BBVA Next Technologies. The company’s 1,200 tech workers will focus on areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), the blockchain and cloud computing, according to their press release. “BBVA Next Technologies is a company that specialises in emerging and disruptive technologies, that strives to stay ahead of the curve, looks at the future and aims to recruit the best tech talent,” BB

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Your Accounting Expertise Will Only Get You So Far: The New Way To Lead

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.

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L?Or?al Unveils Live Makeup Consultations With Augmented Reality

PYMNTS

Putting a digital spin on makeup try-ons, L’Oréal is using augmented reality (AR) to enable beauty advisers to virtually put suggested products on a customer’s face as part of a consultation. The feature, which is dubbed Live Makeup Consultation, will launch for L’Oréal’s NYX Cosmetics brand, Retail Dive reported. With L’Oréal’s technology, customers can ask for product recommendations through video chat.

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Why Banking The ?Accidental Entrepreneur? Takes Baby Steps

PYMNTS

When you picture a small business owner, who comes to mind? The stereotype may be a young professional beaming at a storefront, or happily servicing a customer at a register. But the fact is, today, there is no single image of a small business owner. There are an estimated 57.3 million freelancers in the U.S., accounting for more than a third of the nation’s workforce, according to stats from Upwork and Freelancers Union.

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NEW DATA: The Three Cs Of Disbursement Satisfaction And Why They Matter To Consumers

PYMNTS

What is the key to meeting consumers’ payment preferences? According to a survey of 2,300 respondents, it all comes down to the three Cs: convenience, certainty and choice, the latest edition of the Disbursement Satisfaction Index reveals. In terms of convenience, speed is priority. When it comes to getting paid, consumers want quick and easy access to their funds – without the common frictions involved with a paper check.

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Can Behavioral Analytics Slow Online Fraud?

PYMNTS

Pity the poor fraudster. Fraud has no choice but to roll with the punches, and the flurries are enough to daze a boxer as skilled as Ali. Get a toehold in a consumer’s account with a card and whammo, here comes EMV. Grab a piece of an ID and blam! Machine learning rears its mechanical head. We’re being tongue in cheek, of course. We pity no fraudsters.

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Facebook Brings Subscription Service To Groups

PYMNTS

Facebook announced that it is testing out subscriptions with a small number of groups to support group admins who lead the communities. “Group admins build safe and supportive communities that people come back to every day,” wrote Alex Deve, Product Director, Groups, at Facebook. “We know that admins invest their time and energy to maintain their groups, and some have told us that they would like tools to help them continue to invest in their community and offer more to members.”.

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Becoming Our Money ? And Other Tales From The POS World

PYMNTS

Perhaps not since the adoption of chip and PIN payments has there existed so much potential for disruption in the point-of-sale market. The rise of mom-and-pop entrepreneurs, the coffee truck operators, craft makers and others has opened the door for the smaller POS operators to capture new business. That’s how Andrew Byrne, chief operating officer at London-based payment services firm myPOS , told it during a recent interview with PYMNTS.

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The Hidden Science Behind Why Finance Teams Resist Change—And How to Fix It

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.

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PayPal Buys Simility In Second Buy This Week

PYMNTS

PayPal announced Thursday (June 21) that, following on the heels of its acquisition of Hyperwallet earlier this week, it is acquiring Simility , which is a fraud prevention and risk management platform. In a company blog post, PayPal said that — like with the acquisition of Hyperwallet and the others previously announced during the past 12 months — it is part of an effort to enhance and strengthen the suite of services it can provide so it can provide one-stop solutions for merchants. .

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Cybersecurity Squashes B2B Startup Funding Competition

PYMNTS

Alternative finance apparently won’t stop catching the attention of investors — at least, not any time soon, if this week’s B2B venture capital roundup is any sign. The industry landed $90 million in funding, accounting for four out of the 10 funding rounds announced by B2B startups. Yet, alternative lenders landed only a fraction of the more than $455 million raised.

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Pay By Face: 3D Facial Recognition And Frictionless Checkout

PYMNTS

It’s one of the ideals of payments and commerce, a vision that drives so much research and experimentation: Making it through a store checkout lane without fishing for a card or waving a mobile phone, or even checking into a hotel after an exhausting flight without producing a driver’s license and credit card to gain access to the room. Transactions anchored around biometrics , and biometrics only, represent a seemingly utopian future that seems to get closer every year.

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Tapping Digital Escrow To Build Big-Ticket eCommerce Trust

PYMNTS

Big-name eTailers like Amazon, eBay and Walmart have made it easier than ever to buy just about anything online. When it comes to shopping for big-ticket items like pre-used or new commercial vehicles, though, the online shopping process is anything but easy. In fact, it is frequently rife with friction. For sellers, the process might entail anxiously waiting to receive payments.

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Doing More With Less: The Modern Finance Miracle

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.

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Digital Identities For A Digital World: The Key To Modern Transaction Monitoring

PYMNTS

As the world continues its path to becoming more digital, risks are increasingly finding their way into transaction processes, and that calls for a different approach to transaction monitoring. FinTech companies have been doing their best to take disruptive approaches that are more automated and efficient than those of their traditional financial services counterparts.

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Emailage: Larger Footprint Means Richer Risk Assessment

PYMNTS

Emailage , the online fraud prevention startup that uses email addresses to assess risk, announced this week that it’s expanding its geographical footprint and establishing new offices in regions of interest, which has included strategic hires and reappointments. The news is significant because, although Emailage had customers in Asia Pacific (APAC) and Europe, the Middle East and Asia (EMEA), it has not always had a formal presence there.

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Square Gets License From New York To Enable Bitcoin Trading

PYMNTS

Square , the payments company founded by Jack Dorsey, has received a license to enable residents in New York state to buy and sell bitcoin via its Cash App. In a press release , the New York State Department of Financial Services Superintendent Maria T. Vullo said the agency approved Square ‘s application for a virtual currency license. The payments company has a money-transmitter license from the Department of Financial Services (DFS).

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Shake Shack Founders Stand By Cashless Move

PYMNTS

Danny Meyer is defending his restaurant group’s decision to test out cashless transactions, saying they are not looking to exclude prospective guests. Meyer owns Union Square Hospitality Group , and five of its restaurants are now cashless: Daily Provisions , Martina , Caffe Marchio , Vini e Fritti and Tacocina. In addition, Shake Shack had previously experimented with going cashless at one location.

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8 Pillars of Leadership Development

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.

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WhatsApp?s Indian Payment Feature Boasts One Million Users

PYMNTS

WhatsApp , the Facebook-owned messaging app that counts more than 200 million monthly users, has launched a payments feature in India during the past several months which now has around a million users. According to a report in Quartz citing sources, WhatsApp is in the process of fixing any issues with the payment feature and adding more functionality during beta testing of the service, which kicked off in February.

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PayPal Will Buy Hyperwallet In $400 Million Deal

PYMNTS

PayPal said on Tuesday (June 19) that it will buy payments payout platform Hyperwallet for $400 million in cash. The deal will give PayPal greater strength in eCommerce and online marketplaces, PayPal said in a statement. Marketplace sales accounted for 50 percent of all online sales in 2017, according to an estimate provided by PayPal. “eCommerce platforms and marketplaces are leveling the retail playing field by connecting buyers who have specific needs with groups of sellers that can meet the

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Zycus Ramps Up Customer Outreach In India With Salesforce

PYMNTS

Source-to-pay solutions provider Zycus is teaming up with CRM software firm Salesforce to enhance its own digital transformation strategy, the companies announced Wednesday (June 20). Zycus said it will use Salesforce’s marketing automation solution Pardot to enhance customer engagement and acquisition in India. “B2B marketing automation is the best way to make sure an entire organization is aligned around the customer journey — from awareness to acquisition, to advocacy teams,”

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Stock-Trading Platform Robinhood Eyes Banking Services

PYMNTS

Sources say Robinhood Markets is in talks with regulators about offering banking services to its more than 4 million users. According to Bloomberg , one source claims that the California-based firm is engaging in conversations with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which charters and regulates all national banks and federal savings associations.

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Protect What Matters: Rethinking Finance Ops In A Digital World

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.

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Facebook?s Workplace Launches Workplace For Good To Support Nonprofits, Schools

PYMNTS

Workplace , the enterprise communications app owned by Facebook , announced Wednesday (June 20) that it has launched Workplace For Good, which gives Workplace Premium free to nonprofits and staff at educational institutions around the globe. In a blog post , Workplace said the goal is to help nonprofits and educational institutions create change around the world. “Over the last 18 months, we’ve seen thousands of nonprofits and educational institutions transform the way they work on our pla

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Amazon Rolls Out Prime Wardrobe To US Prime Members

PYMNTS

Following a beta accessible by invitation only, Amazon is rolling out Prime Wardrobe to all of its U.S. Prime customers. An executive with Amazon said the idea behind the service was to take the “pain points” out of shopping, ABC News reported. Kate Dimmock, the fashion director at Amazon Fashion, told ABC News, “What we kept hearing from our customers was that they wanted to shop for fashion with us, but they wanted to try things on.

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UK Accounting Watchdog Ramps Up Fines

PYMNTS

The U.K.’s accounting watchdog, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), has now levied more fines in two days than it has in the entirety of 2017, according to Bloomberg reports on Tuesday (June 19). The FRC issued fines totaling $19 million against PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and KPMG last week, while the regulator also sent KPMG an unprecedented warning that its auditing processes are subpar.

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Warehouse Clubs Test Curated Stores With Digital Options

PYMNTS

Warehouse clubs are designing smaller stores , with a focus on omnichannel features and a carefully chosen selection. They are also seeking to borrow from Amazon by offering free shipping benefits to members. In the restaurant space, third-party aggregators are becoming a popular preference as QSRs are turning to in-store kiosks. And gig workers are expected to be a large chunk of overall U.S. income this year. 32,000: The square footage of a new Sam’s Club store in Texas, with a smaller select

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Automation, Evolved: Your New Playbook for Smarter Knowledge Work

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.

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Beverage Makers Put The Fizz In Summer Coffee

PYMNTS

There are only so many new variations of coffee for the summer: There’s cold brew, nitro and … and citrus-flavored coffee soda? Keepers Co. seeks to shake up the cold coffee beverage industry by putting a spin on a beverage once confined to, say, french vanilla or hazelnut. “We’re trying to change the perception of what coffee could be,” Keepers Co.

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US Supreme Court Gives The Green Light For Online Sales Taxes

PYMNTS

States can collect sales taxes from online retailers thanks to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Thursday (June 21) that addressed one of the most controversial and longstanding issues in eCommerce. The 5-4 decision essentially overturns the court’s 1992 ruling that states can collect sales taxes only from retailers that maintain a physical presence in those states.

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Work Spaces Serve Up Coffee With Community In Apartment Buildings

PYMNTS

Sometime in the near future, a gig economy or remote worker who lives in an apartment building in Austin, Texas might start their day like this: They will leave their apartment and walk downstairs to a coffee shop where they will grab an iced latte. Instead of having to leave the building to travel to a coworking space, they will simply walk past the coffee bar to their desk at a coworking space — within their own building.

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Shopify Rolls Out Messaging App For Merchants

PYMNTS

To condense business conversations and tasks into one place, Shopify has launched a new mobile app dubbed Shopify Ping. Through the app, merchants can manage tasks through messaging without needing to switch between apps and tools, Shopify said in an announcement. “Shopify merchants are conducting many business conversations across multiple apps every day, not only to run their day-to-day operations, but also to manage customer inquiries,” Shopify Director of Product Michael Perry said in the a

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Data Talks, CFOs Listen: Why Analytics Are Key To Better Spend Management

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.