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Bitcoin wallet iPayYou continues to work toward a future with bitcoin as the default currency. It was just announced that iPayYou has made a way for consumers to pay for items on Amazon with bitcoin, called Amazon Direct. Now iPayYou users can transfer any amount of bitcoin from their bitcoin wallet to Amazon. Customers can use the Amazon Direct tab to the iPayYou platform to determine an amount of bitcoin to transfer and the destination account.
Fact. Digital commerce has been a reality for more than two decades. Fact. The launch of the iPhone in 2007 and the App Store in 2008 opened everyone’s eyes to the impact that mobile would have on payments and commerce. Fact. Twenty years and hundreds of millions of smartphones later, the digital payments experience is anything but consistent anywhere — online, in-store and in-app.
Visa said Monday (Nov. 21) that its latest chip data update showed 388 million Visa EMV cards in the U.S. Of those, the firm said there are nearly 181 million chip credit cards in the field and 208.3 million chip debit cards. The firm also said that there are 1.7 million chip-active locations across the country. The 1.7 million tally, up 191 percent in the past year, represents 37 percent of all storefronts nationwide, according to Visa’s statistics.
Mention “mobile payments,” and many people might immediately answer that they 1) pay with smartphones or other devices but 2) spend much more time bellying up to the register and paying with physical cards or cash. Therein lies a conundrum. The promise of mobile has yet to meet reality, and many retailers find that the lines between channels (hence the term “omnichannel”) are increasingly becoming blurred.
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.
The U.K. is already a hotbed of FinTech startups, but the government is getting behind it in a bigger way, committing to invest £500,000 a year into financial technology companies. According to a report , the U.K. government is also gearing up to launch a network of regional FinTech envoys as an effort to enhance the country’s status as a leader in FinTech.
Why make one’s life hard hacking consumer accounts — or taking up armed robbery — when one can get the best of both worlds by directly attacking the banks’ computers and getting ATMs to do things like start spewing cash for no apparent reason? Taiwan and Thailand saw such attacks earlier this year when cyber criminals programmed bank ATMs to spew cash.
The biggest dilemma facing innovators isn’t whether what they’re doing will cannibalize what makes them money today but rather getting enough people to try their innovations so that they become mainstream and can make money tomorrow. Getting people to embrace the new — and make it a habit — is very, very hard to do. University of College London researchers conclude that it takes 66 days, on average, for a consumer to do that “something new” each and every single one of those 66 days to totally b
The biggest dilemma facing innovators isn’t whether what they’re doing will cannibalize what makes them money today but rather getting enough people to try their innovations so that they become mainstream and can make money tomorrow. Getting people to embrace the new — and make it a habit — is very, very hard to do. University of College London researchers conclude that it takes 66 days, on average, for a consumer to do that “something new” each and every single one of those 66 days to totally b
Small businesses may not always be at the forefront when it comes to technology, but when it comes to how its customers pay, most are on board when it comes to mobile payments. That’s according to a new survey commissioned by Samsung Electronics America and conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, which found the majority of small businesses polled said customers want to pay with their smartphones and they expect the use of mobile payments to grow.
Equity-crowdfunded FreeAgent, a U.K.-based small business accounting firm, has listed on the nation’s AIM stock exchange, the LSE ‘s market for smaller firms. FreeAgent broke ground with the listing but, according to reports, missed the mark on valuation. Friday (Nov. 18) reports said FreeAgent has become the first IPO on the market delivered by an equity crowdfunding platform, Seedrs, which launched a funding campaign for the startup last year.
Bad guys know retailers and businesses are working to stay one step ahead of their sophisticated and malicious attacks. To combat this, hackers are looking to gain access to sensitive information by taking a much easier route: using legitimate credentials to go right inside. In this week’s Hacker Tracker , Ryan Stolte , cofounder and CTO at Bay Dynamics , joined PYMNTS to shed light on the growing cybersecurity concern of insider threats and how retailers are making big strides in keeping hacker
Germany stock exchange Deutsche Börse has participated in a funding round for local FinTech startup figo, reports said Wednesday (Nov. 23). Figo has developed an API for banks that supports the revised Payment Services Directive ( PSD2 ). In total, the firm’s Series B funding round yielded $7.17 million, reports said. Deutsche Börse didn’t reveal exactly how much it provided. “The figo team led by [CEO] André Bajorat has made clear the opportunities that exist for virtually eve
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.
India B2B payments firm Happay is now looking to accelerate the time it takes to onboard SMEs to its platform. The company revealed Friday (Nov. 18) that it rolled out its Express On-boarding Program for small businesses in the nation aimed to help SMEs more quickly use Happay services. The accelerated tool means small businesses can register and receive a working credit card in only a few days.
Klarna, the Swedish payment service provider, is taking over Cookies, the Berlin FinTech startup that ran out of money. According to a report , the idea behind Cookies was to make mobile money transfers easier. The startup, once upon a time, was a darling among venture capitalists, but infighting among the company’s management led Cofounder Garry Krugljakow to not sign off on capital raising, which resulted in the startup running out of money.
A new plan, titled “Sheltered Harbor,” was unveiled by the primary trade groups that represent the financial services sector to help standardize data storage for retail accounts and strengthen cybersecurity defenses. The Wall Street Journal reported that the plan is designed to help better protect the accounts of depositors and investors from cyberattacks.
The name Sezzle’s got you thinking of sizzle, no doubt, and it very well should. The numbers are in. Same Day ACH payments are gaining traction right out of the gate, with nearly $5 billion and 3.8 million transactions in October, the first full month of activity. And though the bulk of that took place though direct deposit activity (think payroll) and B2B transactions, P2P and consumer bill pay saw tens of thousands of payments.
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.
Just in time for Black Friday, Google Data released its consumer trends report and predictions for the upcoming holiday shopping season. Here are the key findings, insights and trends to expect from consumers in the coming weeks. Top product searches in the first two weeks of November provided researchers with enough data to project the most popular sale items this holiday season.
While more banks and businesses are delving into and even getting comfortable with the idea of blockchain, some businesses are removing themselves from it. Sort of. This week Goldman Sachs opted out of renewing its membership to the R3CEV blockchain consortium. The departure does not mean, however, that the bank is steering away from blockchain entirely.
The dominating narrative in small business lending is the rise in alternative finance to fill the gaps left behind by traditional banks. Even so, FinTech innovators aren’t ignoring traditional FIs, with many developing solutions just for the banks to help them ease back into the game. But the realities of small business finance remain: SMBs are often more risky than large corporate borrowers, and undoubtedly, they’re less profitable for the banks.
Businesses today are extra careful about where they place their money — if they invest at all, that is. This week, we take a look at how companies are investing. In some cases, firms are investing in outsourced services to stay ahead of the competition. In other scenarios, it’s a business owner’s friends and family doing the investing. PYMNTS also explores the venture capital and lending spaces as professional investors make some changes and as businesses look to invest in themselves. $2.4
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.
The gig economy is gaining traction all around the world. But how does global expansion affect the payment processes that keep these contractors and freelancers invested? Even as work becomes increasingly decentralized and jobs permeate international barriers, cross-border payout friction remains. Often it’s these outbound payments that trip up firms as they seek scale and balance in new locations, driving them into uncharted regulatory territory.
Data breaches are becoming more common these days, and it doesn’t matter which country the company resides in. That’s the case with the latest breach, which reportedly happened to Three UK, the U.K. mobile network operator. According to a report by TechCrunch , roughly two-thirds of Three UK’s customers have had their information compromised after hackers were able to get an employee login and access to the network.
Doubt plagues any disruptive technology. But with federal officials now pressing for faster payments technologies to get off the ground, time is running out for the nay-sayers to be convinced. FinTech company linked2pay isn’t worried, though. The firm has introduced real-time payments capabilities for its Bank Centric Payments platform, built for financial institutions.
Hyperwallet, the global payouts provider to millions of independent workers, announced Tuesday (Nov. 22) it inked a partnership with USA Media Rights, a music and media rights company. In a press release, Hyperwallet said, under the partnership, USA Media Rights will continue to connect Hyperwallet with music industry organizations to improve the processing and delivery of royalty payments for recording artists, music producers and songwriters worldwide.
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.
Just in time for the holiday shopping spree — including Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday — online selling platform Etsy has announced it now accepts Apple Pay. The company revealed Monday (Nov. 21) that its online site now allows buyers to pay via Apple Pay; previously, the company only supported Apple Pay when purchases were made on the Etsy iOS app.
They’re the worst sort of uninvited guests — the ones who take your valuables and money. No, we’re not talking about klepto Aunt Edna. We’re talking about online fraudsters, the ones who cause calamity for consumers and merchants alike. And in a far-ranging conversation about technology-driven fraud that lies far beyond the reach of simple stolen credit card data, Forter CEO Michael Reitblat told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster that the holidays are simply a demarcation of timing and opportunity on the ca
Indian consumers may be suffering amid a cash shortage in the country, but two winners appear to be Visa and Mastercard. According to a report by Bloomberg , Visa and Mastercard are expected to see an increase in transactions and new cardholders due to the decision by the government to take high-denomination bills out of circulation. Bloomberg, citing analysts who cover the companies, said Visa and Mastercard wanted this type of change in India given the majority of transactions in India are st
Mobile will likely get lot of quiet thanks during the next few day — and the holiday season in general, if for no other reason than it helps the season of peace remain, well, peaceful. Anyone who read PYMNTS on their phone, instead of talking about the election, or shopped in their pajamas, instead of in a melee at the mall, or streamed Netflix on a tablet, instead of watching a lot of football that they didn’t understand, will likely have something nice to say.
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.
Starbucks is expanding its mobile app into other countries, announcing last week the launch of its mobile app in Indonesia. In a press release , the coffee chain operator announced customers in Indonesia can now pay via the mobile app in more than 260 stores in the country. With the app, customers can pay in-store by scanning the barcode linked to their Starbucks card.
Analysts at Kaspersky Lab have discovered a string of attacks targeting users across Asia and Africa, the company said Wednesday (Nov. 23). Experts have identified cyberattacks that use what’s called a zero-day exploit, a program that allows additional malware to be installed on a device without the user’s knowledge. The attacks are hitting the InPage text editor software used by businesses with employees that speak Urdu and Arabic.
India’s small business finance space got some renewed attention by investors this week when local startup numberz.in announced seed funding. Owned by Paradime Technologies, numberz.in offers cash flow management for businesses. The company secured $650,000 from Kae Capital and Khosla Impact, reports said Monday (Nov. 21). Numberz.in offers small and medium-sized businesses a way to manage cash flow by offering solutions like invoice and expense management, reports explained, adding that th
Amazon has something to cheer about this holiday season: a lot of Prime subscribers. That’s according to Cowen Analyst John Blackledge, who estimated on Monday (Nov. 21) that Amazon’s Prime subscribers in the U.S. have climbed to 49.5 million, reaching an all-time high. The analyst, who conducted a survey of 2,500 consumers, found Amazon Prime had 47 million customers in the third quarter, up 20 percent compared to the 40 million it had last year at this 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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