Sat.May 23, 2020 - Fri.May 29, 2020

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Preparing Merchants For The Coming Mobile Wallet Boost

PYMNTS

Call it the great shift. We’re still navigating the pandemic — which means doing what we used to do offline, increasingly, through digital means. As PYMNTS found in a recent consumer study, 40 percent of individuals are doing more of their daily retail and transactions online, partly because, well, there’s no other way to do it. And as many as 22 percent of the population surveyed said those habits would stick.

Start-ups 112
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Ben’s Message

MazumaBusinessAccounting

June Newsletter. As a small business owner, I am constantly hiring new employees and am immersed in the hiring process. I love the beginning of the process, particularly looking through resumes. Each resume has a story. The single piece of paper has years of hard work, dedication, experience, and discipline. I often ponder at my own experience and wonder “what’s my story, and what’s the next chapter?

CPA 96
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SBA Releases Interim Final Rules on PPP Loan Forgiveness and Loan Review

Katz,Sapper&Miller

Over Memorial Day weekend, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) issued the interim final rule on Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan forgiveness.

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What Can You Spend Your PPP Forgivable Loan on?

xendoo

If your small businesses managed to secure a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan before the well ran dry, your next task is figuring out how to use it. Here’s a list of the expenses that qualify for forgiveness (meaning you don’t have to pay the loan back). Remember, your lender will perform an audit at the end of the 8-week forgiveness period to see how you spent the loan.

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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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Using Sensors And IoT To Thwart Home Invasions (Of Privacy)

PYMNTS

To monitor a home and to make sure all is safe and secure means you have to monitor the people and the activities inside. How to do that without destroying privacy in the age of work from home, shop from home, do-everything from home? In the age of connected devices, it may be that the sensor can go a long way toward eliminating that all standby, the unblinking eye of the camera — always on, and perhaps intrusive.

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How the Coronavirus Could Lead to a New Renaissance

RLLeaders

The future has never been guaranteed. Even so, we’ve taken it for granted, and have avoided preparing in government, our businesses, and society in general. We tend to “work in,” not “work on,” managing too many crises and tasks to tackle the tough questions about the reliability of our futures, let alone develop plans to mitigate eventual problems.

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Green Dot To Launch Mobile Banking For US Immigrants

PYMNTS

Welcome Technologies , which works to aid immigrants as they integrate into life in a new country, is partnering with Green Dot for the PODERCard, which will help U.S. Hispanic immigrants access digital banking services, according to a press release. Less than half of U.S. Hispanic immigrants have access to actual banking services, the release states, citing an FDIC survey.

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How To Keep Fraudsters From Scamming Banks Across Every Nook And Channel

PYMNTS

More consumers are turning to the omnichannel offerings of banks and credit unions (CUs) as they follow stay-at-home mandates, and cybercriminals are eager to launch attacks that make use of these channels. Account takeovers (ATOs) rose 347 percent from 2018 to 2019 — a problem that will only worsen if financial institutions (FIs) are not vigilant. Fraudsters seek to fly under the radar by stealing information through one channel that they then use to execute ATOs or other attacks.

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Amazon Eyes Zoox Acquisition For Autonomous Cars

PYMNTS

Amazon is in talks to buy self-driving car startup Zoox in a move that would advance the eCommerce giant’s reach in autonomous vehicle technology, according to a Tuesday (May 26) report in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), citing sources familiar with the matter. In a 2018 funding round, Zoox was valued at $3.2 billion; a sale now would likely reflect a decreased valuation.

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Innovating The ATM Beyond Cash

PYMNTS

The COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the pace of digital innovation across the financial sector, and credit unions (CUs) are no exception. CU branches across the United States have temporarily closed to help slow the spread of contagion, forcing CUs to find new ways to engage with their members via connected technologies, from mobile devices to laptops and especially ATMs.

Legal 97
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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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SDF Invests $550K In SatoshiPay For B2B X-Border Solution

PYMNTS

The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) has made a $550,000 strategic investment to go toward SatoshiPay ‘s development of a B2B cross-border payments solution and its digital wallets, according to a press release. SDF’s investment came by way of convertible loan notes and was the third investment the foundation has made in SatoshiPay. The convertible loan notes will likely convert at the time of SatoshiPay’s next funding round, the release states.

B2B 97
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Home Sales Up 0.6 Pct In April Despite Lockdown

PYMNTS

Sales of new single-family homes were up 0.6 percent in April compared to March, but they fell by 6 percent compared to April 2019, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The seasonally adjusted number of new houses sold last month totaled 623,000, down from 664,000 in April 2019. As home sales fell, so did prices.

Sales 95
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FIs Or FinTechs: Who Will Power Banking?s Big Digital Shift?

PYMNTS

The pandemic has accelerated the digital roadmap for everyone in financial services, giving rise to more innovation in the past few months than had been seen over the course of several years. And according to five observers across the spectrum of traditional financial institutions (FIs), payment networks and digital-only banks, opportunities are there for digital-first and hybrid models alike to succeed — so long as they harbor a relentless focus on identifying and solving customer problems.

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ABB On How Smart Cities Can Emerge Stronger Out Of The Pandemic

PYMNTS

The global smart cities market is projected to grow to nearly $3.5 trillion by 2026, driven by investment in everything from connected street lighting systems to smart electrical grids. The COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupted global economies and supply chains, and some might thus expect public officials and company leaders to put the brakes on large-scale smart city investments.

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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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Payments Tech Takes Advantage Of Payment Rails Building Blocks

PYMNTS

Despite some drawbacks, legacy rails have mounds of potential to tackle a multitude of B2B payments friction points. For payments technology players, finding the opportunities to build upon existing infrastructure continues to open up new doors in B2B payments improvements. This week’s look at the latest in payments rails innovation finds players including Mastercard, Aflex and Paycor targeting existing card and ACH rails to expand their use for corporates, with a focus on reconciliation,

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What Legacy FIs Miss About The Need For Cloud-Based Infrastructure

PYMNTS

Financial institutions (FIs) have been adapting their platforms and technologies to better suit the needs of more digital consumers for decades, but the coronavirus has placed new importance and pressure on accelerating these efforts. Allowing customers uninterrupted access to their online financial accounts and processing digital payments quickly is critical during this time as brick-and-mortar branches are either closed or on limited hours.

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MoneyGram, Uber Offer Discount On Digital Money Transfers To Drivers

PYMNTS

MoneyGram is partnering with Uber in order to offer discounts on money transfers to over 200 countries and territories, a press release states. The discount is available to anyone who earns money on an Uber-related gig economy app, including Uber Eats, Uber Works and Uber Freight. “The spread of COVID-19 has been hard for everyone, and it has been particularly challenging for people who drive and deliver with companies like ours.

Finance 88
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Walmart, Green Dot Announce Enhanced MoneyCard Features

PYMNTS

With features such as free cash deposits and a high-yield savings account, Walmart and Green Dot unveiled updated benefits for the Walmart MoneyCard Reloadable Debit Card program. The Walmart MoneyCard will now offer accountholders a 2 percent annual percentage yield on money saved with a connected savings account, among other features, per an announcement.

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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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FedEx Eyes Stake In Germany’s Hermes Delivery Service

PYMNTS

With home deliveries surging, FedEx may be looking to acquire stake in German delivery firm Hermes , according to the Handelsblatt newspaper, as reported by Reuters. FedEx has very limited presence in Europe’s delivery circuit, and Petra Scharner-Wolff , finance chief of Hermes, said the company’s efforts to find a strategic partner for parcel delivery had sparked “broad interest,” according to Reuters.

B2B 86
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Uber Debuts $50 Hourly Ride Option In Select US Cities

PYMNTS

Starting next month, ridesharing users in a dozen cities can opt in for a $50 an hour ride, Uber Technologies Inc. announced on Friday (May 29). Following a pilot program in Australia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East, this new feature is aimed at helping Americans with essential trips during the COVID-19 pandemic, the San Francisco-based company said.

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Consumer Foot Traffic Up, But Time Spent In Store Is Shorter, Mall Group CEO Says

PYMNTS

The owner/operator of 85 shopping centers in California, Colorado and Illinois said shoppers are returning to recently reopened malls, but they’re not lingering, according to a CNBC report. “Since last week, our average traffic has been up about 25 percent, so we are seeing more customers starting to come back,” Newmark Merrill CEO Sandy Sigal told CNBC’s “Closing Bell” Monday (May 26).

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PPP Loan Demand Peters Out Amid SMB Confusion

PYMNTS

First the rush to get in – and then, perhaps, the rush to get out. Since debuting on April 3, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) – the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA’s) initiative to grant SMBs forgiveness loans to pay workers for eight weeks instead of laying people off – has had a rocky time of it. Glitches and delays initially bedeviled the roughly $660 billion program, and it’s had a bumpy ride ever since, as the SBA and U.S.

payroll 79
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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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TIS Notches $20M For B2B Payments Flow Platform Expansion

PYMNTS

To continue its fast international expansion, TIS (Treasury Intelligence Solutions) notched $20 million in additional financing led by Aquiline Technology Growth. The funding round for the corporate payments and cash flow management cloud platform also included participation from 83North, an existing investor, according to an announcement. TIS CEO and Co-Founder Jörg Wiemer said in the announcement, “We are proud to have Aquiline on board alongside our existing investors.

B2B 76
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Crypto.com Expands Card To 31 Countries

PYMNTS

Digital-payments company i2c Inc. has unveiled a partnership to power the expansion of Crypto.com ’s end-to-end crypto ecosystem, which consists of a Visa crypto debit card and a wallet app to buy and sell crypto and earn cash-back rewards in crypto form. Crypto.com currently offers the system in the United States, Singapore and the United Kingdom, but is expanding it to 31 European countries, according to a press release.

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Goldman Takes Bitcoin To Task

PYMNTS

Bitcoin : not worth much – except what someone else is willing to pay for it. Goldman Sachs’ withering assessment of bitcoin this week may be enough to take some wind out of the sails of those who have been looking for the marquee name in crypto to find its way into mainstream commerce. As reported by the Financial Times , Goldman was once a staunch advocate of bitcoin, and had been, just a few years ago, examining whether to launch a bitcoin trading desk.

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Malls See Increase in Foot Traffic, But Less Time Spent In Store

PYMNTS

The owner/operator of 85 shopping centers in California, Colorado and Illinois said shoppers are returning to recently reopened malls, but they’re not lingering, according to a CNBC report. “Since last week, our average traffic has been up about 25 percent, so we are seeing more customers starting to come back,” Newmark Merrill CEO Sandy Sigal told CNBC’s “Closing Bell” Monday (May 26).

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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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Facebook Canada Starts Aid Program For SMBs

PYMNTS

Facebook Canada has announced a series of initiatives to aid small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) during the coronavirus pandemic, including $3.5 million in grants, virtual training classes and new features to help promote SMBs across numerous apps owned by the social media giant, according to a press release. The grants will be available between May 26 and June 2 for Canadian SMBs looking for financial aid.

B2B 73
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Mastercard Debuts COVID-Recovery Data Tools For Business, Gov?t

PYMNTS

Mastercard ‘s new Recovery Insights tool will attempt to help businesses and governments assess data during the pandemic in order to make smarter decisions, according to a press release. The tool will attempt to help an array of businesses, including airlines, restaurants, banks, governments and other types of money-making and governing entities, said Mastercard President of Data and Services Raj Seshadri.

Arizona 73
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New Data: Inside Main Street SMB’s Digital Shift

PYMNTS

When the United States economy locked down to slow the spread of the coronavirus, it rapidly and radically altered the way consumers browsed, shopped and paid for goods and services — and not all small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) were prepared. Businesses that did not have online shopping channels were unable to sell their products, and restaurants that did not offer online ordering for pickup or delivery could not serve their customers.

Maine 73
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Related Co Chair: Many SMB Retail, Restaurants ‘Don’t Have The Wherewithal To Reopen’

PYMNTS

Stephen Ross , chairman of Related Cos. , said bankruptcy could be the future for many retailers as the effects of the pandemic continue to play out. Ross, speaking with CNBC on Tuesday (May 26), said retail and hotel industries were the hardest-hit by the pandemic, and the closures and reduced travel would force closures and bankruptcies beyond those like J.C.

Retail 72
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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.