PYMNTS
APRIL 24, 2018
Companies recognize the need for IoT security, but few are acting on those concerns. According to a recent survey, 97 percent of respondents said an attack on unsecured devices would be devastating to their organizations. However, less than a third are actually vigilant about monitoring for third-party related risks. Despite the security risks, the popularity of IoT seems unlikely to abate.
Katz,Sapper&Miller
APRIL 23, 2018
Josh Brown, a franchise and entrepreneur attorney with The Law Office of Josh F. Brown, LLC, joins us to expand upon our initial discussion about restaurant franchising, how it’s done, key components to consider, and more.
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PYMNTS
APRIL 27, 2018
In many businesses, acquiring customers used to be a function of where the business was located — a high traffic intersection for a convenience store or a well-heeled mall for a clothing retailer. Technology, of course, changed all that. It’s also made the offering of subscription services a robust channel for a business to operate in. By one measure , subscription company websites have seen visitor growth of over 800 percent since 2014.
PYMNTS
APRIL 23, 2018
Brick-and-mortar retail has spent the last decade building bridges to the digital world so a new generation of digital consumers can move fluidly between them. What’s been largely left behind, however, is a payments experience that moves just as seamlessly between those worlds. There have been many attempts to bridge the gap, but consumers haven’t really taken the bait.
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
APRIL 25, 2018
Authorities shuttered one of the largest cyberattack organizations in the world yesterday, making arrests in four countries and seizing assets and infrastructure in three others, the Associated Press reported. Europol, a joint European police agency, said it shut down webstresser.org, calling it the largest source of distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
PYMNTS
APRIL 26, 2018
The U.K. is only weeks away from bringing its Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules into effect, and corporates are ill-prepared for the data security requirements, according to new research. Law firm McDermott Will & Emery collaborated with Ponemon Institute to assess how U.K. businesses are getting ready for GDPR to take effect on May 25.
Accountant Advocate brings together the best content for small business accounting professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
PYMNTS
APRIL 24, 2018
Is it time to mark the passing of the password? Don’t hang the crepe and black bunting just yet. But then again, the password’s breathing and pulse seem to be … perhaps a bit labored and slowed. Last week, the FIDO Alliance and the World Wide Web Consortium announced the launch of Web Authentication (WebAuthn), billed as a password-free browser. Standards bodies, then, are coming together to offer a standard protocol to hasten logins without using passwords.
PYMNTS
APRIL 26, 2018
The growing complexity of international supply chains inevitably adds complexity to risk mitigation and increases risk exposure to all players involved. This trend is evolving rapidly, and corporate buyers are examining threats from all angles. Once, a company’s top supplier-related risk may have been the threat of a vendor going out of business, or goods failing to make it to their destination on time.
PYMNTS
APRIL 24, 2018
In the 1980s, David Humble was at the grocery checkout counter when something unusual happened: A customer became frustrated with a cashier’s slow pace, so he simply scanned one of his purchases himself. That incident inspired Humble to develop a prototype for a self-checkout system. He combined a personal computer, an industrial computer and a video screen.
PYMNTS
APRIL 23, 2018
Airbnb is helping event planners provide lodging ideas for attendees – and is hoping to make some money along the way – with the launch of Airbnb for Events. In a blog post , the company said that event planners will share the details of the event, and then Airbnb will use that information to create a custom event page and embed a widget that will enable attendants to find a place to stay.
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
APRIL 26, 2018
Bankruptcy may not spell the end for Toys R Us stores – at least outside of the U.S. The embattled retailer’s stores will get a second chance at retail life in Canada and Europe. Toys R Us agreed to sell its Canadian business, which consists of 82 stores, to Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited for around $234 million dollars in a bankruptcy court hearing on Tuesday (April 24).
PYMNTS
APRIL 24, 2018
In the gig economy, high turnover means heavy lifting for firms seeking the right candidate. And with rules and regulations governing various service industries — from finance to ride-hailing — background checks are part of the hiring job of hiring. Against that backdrop, Checkr seeks to automate the process a bit by conducting background checks for thousands of customers.
PYMNTS
APRIL 26, 2018
American Express has passed a major hurdle in efforts to become the first U.S.-based credit network to offer services in mainland China. The Chinese central bank formally accepted American Express’ application to clear and settle domestic bank card transactions, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. The New York credit card company applied as part of a venture with China mobile payment provider Lianlian Group.
PYMNTS
APRIL 26, 2018
There was a lot going on during PayPal ’s quarterly earnings report yesterday (April 25), as the original “Pay” player managed to beat analyst expectations nearly across the board and even forecast a better-than-expected result for the rest of the year. Growth was the big story: PayPal saw transactions on its platform increase, its user base swell by an additional 8 million active users and its P2P platform Venmo rapidly grow its footprint.
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
APRIL 25, 2018
Apple remains the largest company in the world, but the battle is on for No. 2, as Microsoft has rallied to be neck and neck with Amazon in terms of market capitalization. The two Washington state-based companies are within one percentage point of each other, with a market cap of about $723 billion, thanks to a week-long rally in Microsoft shares coupled with a slump in Amazon shares, reported 24/7 Wall St.
PYMNTS
APRIL 26, 2018
A month away, and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) looms large. As Shakespeare wrote centuries ago (without data mapping in mind), the readiness is all. IdentityMind CTO Kieran Sherlock told PYMNTS the readiness for the sea change in data privacy varies. Many of the larger EU-based firms have been preparing for GDPR for years and have processes in place that anticipate the formal debut of GDPR and its compliance mandates.
PYMNTS
APRIL 24, 2018
Months after delivering packages inside customers’ homes, Amazon begins delivering purchases inside customers’ cars. The free service is only available to Prime members in certain cities and vehicles, CNBC reported. “Amazon Key In-Car Delivery supports most 2015 model year or newer Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac and Volvo vehicles with an active connected car service plan such as OnStar or Volvo On Call,” the retailer wrote on its website.
PYMNTS
APRIL 27, 2018
Starbucks saw strong growth in its loyalty program and mobile transactions over its second fiscal quarter of 2018, the company announced ahead of its earnings call. The coffee chain added 1.6 million new U.S. members to its Starbucks rewards program. In addition, Starbucks discovered that members of Starbucks rewards were buying more: Over the quarter, their spend increased to 39 percent of U.S. company-operated sales.
Advertiser: Paycor
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PYMNTS
APRIL 27, 2018
It didn’t get to $10,000. That might be the headline news about bitcoin. But then again, it wasn’t $6,000 either. Nor even the $7,000 level seen earlier this month. At a recent $9,300, bitcoin may or may not be stabilizing. Recent coverage in the financial trade press seems to anticipate that there might be some stabilization on hand. Commentary about regulatory efforts that may be a bit more benign than some had feared likely helped.
PYMNTS
APRIL 26, 2018
Fashion designer brand Marc Jacobs is collaborating with Microsoft to address key challenges in the industry’s supply chain management and accounts payable (AP) processes. The companies announced news on Wednesday (April 25) that they are partnering to enhance Marc Jacobs’ accounts payable and invoice processing capabilities. The brand has deployed MediusFlow , an accounts payable and invoice automation solution designed on the Microsoft Azure platform.
PYMNTS
APRIL 24, 2018
Marketplace lending platforms – Lending Club, OnDeck, Prosper and the like – have inarguably and fundamentally altered the geography of the lending landscape. In the last decade, they’ve gone from being a niche product to representing about a third of unsecured consumer loan volume in the United States as of 2016, according to a r ecent study by Harvard Business School Professor Boris Vallee and University of Washington Professor Yao Zeng.
PYMNTS
APRIL 27, 2018
Welcome to Five at Five , your late look at some of the freshest payments news of the day. Today’s stories include an up-to-date analytical report about which ordering and payment technologies are making the most gains in restaurants and how iris scans can beat out other biometrics. Coverage also discusses the future of consumer financial management and a new sense of stability around bitcoin.
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
APRIL 24, 2018
The usual school lunch menu suspects — pizza and chicken nuggets — appeal to some students, but those options may not work for students who are vegetarian or gluten-free. As a result, “the school lunch solution doesn’t really work anymore,” Wise Apple Co-Founder and President Nathan Cooper told PYMNTS in an interview. To create an alternative for kids with dietary needs, Cooper set out to reinvent the school lunch by offering a kid-focused meal subscription service that accommodates different di
PYMNTS
APRIL 21, 2018
In 2012, American internet entrepreneur, angel investor, author and blogger Jason Calacanis gave a pretty bold prediction about Amazon Prime — then in its seventh year of existence. “There are two types of people in the world: those with Amazon Prime and those without,” Calacanis wrote. “How you think about consumption, commerce and your personal time is radically different depending on if you’ve join the cult — yet.
PYMNTS
APRIL 27, 2018
While the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s William Hinman said the agency is “striving for a balanced approach” between digital currencies and initial coin offerings (ICOs), a U.S. congressman is taking issue with this line of thinking. U.S. Representative Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) thinks ICOs are detrimental to the economy, CoinDesk reported.
PYMNTS
APRIL 26, 2018
Chinese officials have reportedly taken measures to monitor and potentially crack down on the nation’s banks’ risky lending practices, reports in Reuters said Wednesday (April 25). Two unnamed sources told the publication that the nation’s financial regulator, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC), have deployed teams from local branches to commercial banks.
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
APRIL 26, 2018
The Department of Labor is examining if Wells Fargo pushed retirement-planning customers into pricier accounts and toward buying more expensive investment funds, generating more fees for itself, The Wall Street Journal reported. The bank has pressed employees to move clients into more expensive individual retirement accounts when they retired or left a job providing them a 401(k) account.
PYMNTS
APRIL 24, 2018
Facebook is giving more detail on how and why it chooses to delete content from its network. The world’s largest social media company published its “community standards” guidebook on its website yesterday, providing more detail on how the network’s 7,500 moderators decide what text, pictures and video are removed. Facebook released the previously employee-only guide to provide more transparency about how it decides what’s acceptable and to get feedback that should allow the company to improve i
PYMNTS
APRIL 23, 2018
There are many on-demand apps, but few apps aggregate multiple services. Apps such as Accomplice , however, allow users to choose from multiple services and coordinate food deliveries with rideshares. When a customer orders food and a rideshare through Accomplice, the app monitors the customer’s journey home and places his or her order at the optimal time.
PYMNTS
APRIL 26, 2018
Mastercard and IFC , a member of the World Bank Group, announced Thursday (April 26) that they have updated a $250 million global risk-sharing facility in an effort to expand access to electronic payments in emerging markets. In a press release , Mastercard said that updating the agreement inked in 2015 will help financial companies in developing countries participate in the Mastercard network through an IFC program.
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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