PYMNTS
MAY 17, 2018
Revolut announced Thursday (May 17) the full release of its Open API for business customers, which it started testing roughly a month ago. In a blog post , Revolut said the response from the business community has been “nothing short of amazing,” and that the community is already using the API to make payments easier, saving time and removing frustration.
Katz,Sapper&Miller
MAY 15, 2018
Employee stock ownership plans (ESOP) were traditionally viewed as acquisition vehicles used in transactions involving manufacturing or other capital-intensive businesses; however, more often, ESOPs are being considered and successfully used for the transition of ownership in professional services firms.
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PYMNTS
MAY 15, 2018
The Amazon Go store is getting ready to expand into San Francisco and Chicago. The first cashierless Amazon Go store opened in January in Seattle after being in development for five years. It’s located on the ground floor of the eCommerce giant’s new headquarters. Customers are able to choose from pre-made salads, sandwiches, snacks and meals, as wells as beer, wine and other beverages.
PYMNTS
MAY 17, 2018
It’s happened again. Wells Fargo on Thursday (May 17) was facing accusations that its employees altered customer data, this time in a business banking unit, according to The Wall Street Journal. The paper, citing unnamed sources, reported that bank employees “improperly altered information on documents related to corporate customers.”. There is no evidence that any data involved creating fictitious accounts for retail consumers, as was the case in the scandal from about two years ago.
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
MAY 18, 2018
In today’s digitally connected global economy, employers don’t need to think local when hiring freelancers – but thinking local still applies when paying the freelancers they employ. Gig workers , whether working for an employer in the same country or across the globe, prefer payments in their local currencies and for funds to be quickly deposited into their bank accounts.
PYMNTS
MAY 14, 2018
If one were to play a word association game and throw the term “cable home shopping” into the mix, more likely than not the two most frequent responses would be “QVC” or “HSN,” the two leading players in the space. Classifying them as two separate players is a bit outdated, though, since QVC’s parent firm, Liberty Interactive Corp , purchased the remainder of HSN’s parent, HSNi, in July of last year.
Accountant Advocate brings together the best content for small business accounting professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
PYMNTS
MAY 17, 2018
Sometime around the year 2000, small business (SMB) owners woke up one day and realized they needed a website. The case for SMBs having their own websites is so clear as to be moot today, but that wasn’t the case in the early days of the World Wide Web. Businesses could be forgiven for failing to see the value of staking a claim on their corner of the web.
PYMNTS
MAY 15, 2018
Borrowers in the U.S. are defaulting on subprime auto loans at a higher rate than during the financial crisis in 2008. Data from Fitch Ratings shows that the delinquency rate for subprime auto loans more than 60 days past due reached the highest since 1996 at 5.8 percent. The default rate during the 2008 financial crisis was around 5 percent. According to Bloomberg , lenders are now taking a step back on financing to applicants with poor credit histories, as well as requiring higher standards fo
PYMNTS
MAY 17, 2018
Square may be closing in on PayPal a bit, with the company’s monthly downloads of the Square Cash app increasing at a faster rate. Barron’s , citing a research report issued this week by Nomura Instinet, reported that monthly downloads of Square Cash are happening at a faster clip than PayPal’s Venmo mobile payment service. According to the Wall Street firm, Venmo’s lead has shrunk from around five million in the middle of last year to around one million since July.
PYMNTS
MAY 18, 2018
After a few quiet weeks, U.S. B2B startups in the small business banking, expense management and analytics sectors led this week’s investment roundup, securing more than half of the $108 million raised. But it’s a startup in Africa that not only secured the largest investment round of the week, but set a new record in the process, raising $47.5 million in the largest investment round ever for a FinTech that operates exclusively in the continent.
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
MAY 18, 2018
Talk about analog to digital. The analog part? It’s been around for centuries. The digital part? In a way, it’s just getting started. The notary — he or she who draws up and certifies contracts and acts as an impartial witness — has a genesis that stretches back centuries. In one example, a notary association in England has been around since the 1300s.
PYMNTS
MAY 18, 2018
Target is taking on the beauty market, bringing in augmented reality (AR) to develop its Target Beauty Studio. The retailer has also announced it will be rolling out men’s grooming departments in a select number of stores, according to Retail Dive reports. A collaborative project with Perfect Corp.’s YouCam Makeup app will allow customers in 10 stores the opportunity to “try on” different shades of makeup using a digital screen before they make a purchase.
PYMNTS
MAY 14, 2018
The conundrum of cannabis banking in the U.S. is both a headache for legal marijuana businesses and an intriguing case study for the financial services industry. But the cannabis market that struggles to access banking services is not limited to small dispensary storefronts (although they are undoubtedly affected by such legal hurdles). The legal marijuana industry in North America, which handled an estimated $9.7 billion in B2C sales last year, includes a complex ecosystem of cultivators, logis
PYMNTS
MAY 18, 2018
For years, pundits and industry experts have been predicting the end of brick-and-mortar business. But those rumors of demise may have been greatly exaggerated, with merchants like French-import Sephora expanding their network of physical locations in recent years. But while brick-and-mortar business rolls on, some changes have come – and are still coming – to the industry.
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
MAY 15, 2018
“On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”. It was the original internet meme, more than two decades before the term “meme” would even be coined. It appeared in a 1993 comic in The New Yorker by Peter Steiner, and it made an early statement about anonymity on the World Wide Web that still rings true today. Like the dog in the cartoon, fraudsters use the same technologies as regular people when moving about in the virtual sphere.
PYMNTS
MAY 18, 2018
Paul Finch, the CEO of Early Warning Services , which launched P2P payment network Zelle last year, announced that he will leave the company in 2019. Finch, 55, cited the fact that he’s been with the company for 28 years and has been working almost nonstop as his reason for stepping down. “A little rest would not be a bad thing,” he said, according to American Banker.
PYMNTS
MAY 18, 2018
More web surfing, more digital commerce, more coffee consumption — a recent deal involving autonomous car technology and Intel seems certain to at least indirectly promote more of those activities while people are on the road. Get ready. The revenue potential is nothing to sneeze at. First, the particulars: According to Reuters on Thursday (May 17), Intel -owned Mobileye , an Israel-based firm acquired last year for $15.3 billion, has signed a deal with an unnamed European auto maker to supply 8
PYMNTS
MAY 18, 2018
There is no shortage of direct-to-consumer mattress brands as mattress sales move from brick-and-mortar retail to eCommerce. One brand, though, saw a market opportunity as brands like Casper and Leesa took off. Nectar Sleep Co-founder Craig Schmeizer said in an interview with PYMNTS.com , “We didn’t see a provider that was focused on a value orientation … [a] richer value proposition [and] trial period, longer warranties, after-sales support, [and a] free mattress cover replacement.” .
Advertiser: Paycor
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PYMNTS
MAY 18, 2018
The world of work — in the U.S. and elsewhere — is radically and rapidly changing shape. The era of the employee is giving way to the age of the gig worker , though possibly not quite as fast people think. Almost half of all Americans are bringing in large swaths of their income with gig work, but a majority are still holding on to a day job while they do it.
PYMNTS
MAY 18, 2018
Bitcoin has fallen to its lowest level in about a month, after climbing to a high of nearly $10,000 in early May, Coindesk reported. The popular cryptocurrency reached $7,925 on Bitfinex on Friday (May 18), which marks its lowest level since April 18. Since reaching a low of $6,425 on April 1, the cryptocurrency rallied, but it has shed about 50 percent of that gain.
PYMNTS
MAY 14, 2018
Can a shift in demographics lead to ripple effects – and maybe even a sea change – in the way gig economy workers get paid? The PYMNTS Gig Economy Index has estimated that gig workers account for 3.7 percent of GDP, worth roughly $711 million in income in 2017. Right alongside those tallies, payroll cards are gaining traction, having accounted for six million cards at the end of last year and expected to grow to as many as eight million cards in 2022, Aite Group reported.
PYMNTS
MAY 16, 2018
Trade finance has evolved into an expansive market that combines supply chain finance, invoice finance and factoring, reverse factoring and a slew of other products – all aimed at ensuring that cash flows more easily through supply chains. At the same time, there is an alarming lack of trade finance available to businesses around the globe, a gap that analysts say disproportionately affects small businesses and hampers their ability to expand across borders.
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
MAY 18, 2018
Overstock has unveiled 17 exclusive private label furniture brands, featuring more than 16,000 furniture and home décor products. The company says the new brands will allow its customers to mix and match furniture across both style and price to achieve a unique look for their home — something that 82 percent of consumers want, according to a recent consumer survey by Overstock.
PYMNTS
MAY 17, 2018
Seven banks in India have struck an agreement to collaborate with digital banking service provider Infosys Finacle on a blockchain-powered trade network, the company announced Wednesday (May 16). In a press release , Infosys Finacle said it has successfully launched India Trade Connect, a trade network developed with Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Induslnd Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, RBL Bank, South India Bank and Yes Bank.
PYMNTS
MAY 18, 2018
The rate of credit card delinquencies jumped 52 basis points (BPS) in the first quarter (Q1) of 2018, and will likely continue to increase over the next 12 months as consumers take on more debt. That’s according to an analysis from Moody’s on Friday (May 18) after the release of the New York Federal Reserve Bank ’s Household Debt and Credit Report. The rate of new delinquencies on credit cards stood at 6.42 percent in Q1, up from 5.9 percent for the same period last year.
PYMNTS
MAY 17, 2018
Many of the hurdles and potholes challenging small business owners today can be attributed to an encompassing problem: SMBs need sophisticated technologies to compete on a global stage, yet the tools to get the job done are designed (and priced) for major conglomerates. In the digital transformation journey, the first step for SMBs is often to migrate to the cloud.
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
MAY 15, 2018
Millennial is now a generational definition that encompasses both those just leaving their parents’ home and entering college, and those paying a mortgage on their house and worrying about paying for their kids’ college. Those bridge millennials — with their digital orientation, extreme Amazon enthusiasm and willingness to try new things — are driving innovation across the board.
PYMNTS
MAY 16, 2018
From artificial intelligence to blockchain to new mobile app features and offerings, banks and financial institutions are investing more in innovations to give customers a better experience and gain an edge over their competition. But use of new technology can come with ethical implications, from human job loss to data privacy concerns. Are FIs treating their customers ethically and handling their data responsibly, and will they continue to do so?
PYMNTS
MAY 16, 2018
Business changes at the speed of competition. Less nimble are the ways that business roles change to track that innovation, particularly when it comes to finance professionals who must look beyond spreadsheets and quarterly reports. Against this backdrop, the role of chief financial officer (CFO) is becoming more fluid as well. Data plays a key part in this evolution, and can be a boon to everything from cost/revenue analysis to setting up payment terms with suppliers that can boost cash flow.
PYMNTS
MAY 18, 2018
As Nordstrom ramps up its digital efforts, the department store retailer reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings. The company reported earnings per share of 51 cents and revenues of $3.47 billion, compared to 44 cents and $3.46 billion. On Thursday (May 17), Co-President Blake Nordstrom said in a post-earnings conference call , “Our first-quarter results reflected our ongoing efforts to integrate our digital and physical assets to serve customers in new and relevant ways.
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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