PYMNTS

SEPTEMBER 18, 2018

Sixty years ago today (Sept. 18), a San Francisco startup launched by sending roughly 60,000 credit cards to consumers living in northern California. This startup was a bank, and its innovation was a single card that could be used by consumers to purchase things on credit from many different merchants. The card eliminated the need for consumers to establish credit with multiple merchants, then carry multiple cards issued by each of those merchants to pay for purchases over time.

Startups 103

Startups Currencies Banking B2B 103

PYMNTS

SEPTEMBER 19, 2018

Amazon.com announced Wednesday (September 19) that it launched in Turkey, enabling consumers in the country to shop from millions of products over the internet. In a press release , Amazon said Amazon.com.tr is now live, featuring products in 15 different categories including books, consumer electronics, sports, outdoor, tools and more. “Our mission at Amazon is to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, at great pri

Retail 81

Retail Investments eCommerce 81

PYMNTS

SEPTEMBER 12, 2018

In tech, innovation is everything. In innovation, intellectual property is, well, almost everything — it can be the hardware, the software, the processes that come from creative endeavor. And patents? Well, consider them a form of competitive advantage. News came recently, when it comes to patents tied to the blockchain landscape, that Thomson Reuters found China, and Alibaba , to have had an outsized showing.

Healthcare 80

Healthcare Transportation Securities Startups 80

PYMNTS

SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

Western Union is reportedly considering a sale of its business payments operation, unnamed sources told Bloomberg on Wednesday (Sept. 26). The sources said a deal could give Western Union a $500 million boost, and that the institution plans to start discussing a sale with potential buyers in a few weeks. They noted, however, that Western Union has not definitively decided to sell its business payments unit and that its plans remain confidential.

Sales 79

Sales B2B Foreign Exchange Valuation 79

Speaker: Joe Wroblewski, Sales Engineer Manager

Automating time-consuming manual tasks can save your firm hundreds of hours–and thousands of dollars. But it can also have longer-lasting benefits, like helping you attract and retain the next generation of CPAs, and we don’t need to tell you how important that is amid the current generational staffing crisis in the tax and accounting profession. You'll want to save your seat for this new webinar with industry expert Joe Wroblewski, where we'll explore how to: Maximize ROI with Cost-Effective Te

Accounting Firms

PYMNTS

SEPTEMBER 11, 2018

Travel companies know that payments innovation is mission-critical when it comes to acquiring and retaining consumers all over the world. It’s a clear fact in the data — 81 percent of travel firms indicated that payments innovation is on the menu for the next three years, according to the PYMNTS/ Amadeus IT Group Travel Payments Study. Bart Tompkins, managing director of Amadeus Payments Business Unit , told Karen Webster in a recent interview that it’s also apparent in his conversations with ai

Sales 78

Sales Finance Marketing 78

PYMNTS

SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

Origins are all the rage in modern life: origin stories, family origins via DNA and digital ancestry databases. Add to that Walmart ’s latest effort to gain more grocery market share: using blockchain technology to trace the origin of the food sold by the retailer back to the farms from which it came. The idea is to introduce more transparency into the process, which could serve to prevent outbreaks of foodborne illnesses and encourage consumer trust of the grocery goods on Walmart shelves.

Retail 78

Retail B2B Currencies Technology 78

PYMNTS

SEPTEMBER 24, 2018

Digital commerce channels are presenting new opportunities for bad actors, making cybercrime a colossal problem for companies of all sizes. All told, U.S. businesses and consumers lost more than $1.4 billion in 300,000-plus reported cyberattacks last year, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Perhaps more troubling, however, is digital fraud’s projected future.

Securities 78

Securities Accounting Investments Startups 78

PYMNTS

SEPTEMBER 21, 2018

Sizzle Of The Week: AR/VR’s Retail Gains. Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) have spent much of 2018 generating buzz as a potential tool for retailers looking to bridge the digital/physical gap and deliver an all-encompassing, omnichannel shopping experience. Retailers and merchants — big and small — have come running to the tech. Some of the luminaries on the field include Target , Walmart, Amazon , eBay , Macy’s, Ikea and Airbnb , all of which have made some type of notabl

Banking 77

Banking Retail Technology eCommerce 77

PYMNTS

SEPTEMBER 21, 2018

Uber Technologies, the ride-hailing company, is reportedly in early-stage talks to acquire Deliveroo , the food delivery company. Bloomberg , citing people familiar with the plans, reported the deal could be worth several billion dollars. Deliveroo , which is based in the U.K., was most recently valued at greater than $2 billion, noted Bloomberg. Acquiring the startup would be a big effort on the part of Uber to lead in the food delivery market in Europe.

Valuation 77

Valuation Startups Numbers Investments 77

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Accounting

PYMNTS

SEPTEMBER 30, 2018

Ripple (XRP) has overtaken Ethereum within the last 24 hours, with a 7 percent surge in price for a market valuation of $24.28 billion. According to CCN , this is the third time this year that Ripple has moved past Ethereum, with each time occurring in the second half of September. But with the market cap of Ethereum only slightly below that of Ripple — combined with the weak volume of XRP — it is likely that Ethereum will regain its position as the second-most valuable cryptocurrency soon.

Valuation 77

Valuation Numbers Investments Marketing 77

PYMNTS

SEPTEMBER 19, 2018

The treasury management unit of PNC Bank is joining RippleNet, the firm said on Wednesday (Sept. 19). PNC Treasury Management joined the Ripple cross-border payments network that uses blockchain to facilitate global transactions. As members of the network, corporate customers of PNC Treasury Management will be able to receive cross-border payments, the FI said, adding that the solution can help them receive payments against their invoices more quickly for streamlined accounts receivable.

Treasury 77

Treasury B2B Invoicing Banking 77

PYMNTS

SEPTEMBER 30, 2018

Ripple , the blockchain startup, is heading up a new cryptocurrency lobbying group called Securing America’s Internet of Value Coalition. Coindesk , citing a Business Standard report late last week, reported the companies behind the lobbying group also include the RippleWorks Foundation ; Coil , a company developing a solution for digital payments; Hard Yaka , an investment firm focusing on digital assets; and PolySign , a company seeking to be a crypto custodian.

Startups 76

Startups Securities Technology Investments 76

PYMNTS

SEPTEMBER 19, 2018

Spending on cognitive and artificial intelligence (AI) systems is expected to see continued strong growth as businesses invest in projects in those areas. According to market research firm International Data Corp.’s Semiannual Cognitive Artificial Intelligence Systems Spending Guide , spending on cognitive and AI systems will reach $77.6 billion in 2022, more than three times the $24.0 billion forecast for this year.

Profit and Loss 76

Profit and Loss Forecasting Pharmaceutical Leadership 76

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PYMNTS

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

In an effort to kill the check — where B2B payments are anything but efficient — might virtual cards be the answer? In an interview with PYMNTS’ Karen Webster, Scot Yarbrough, group executive of commercial services , and Todd King, vice president of product management , both at TSYS , said the embrace of electronic payments may have been slow to get beyond a standing start, but momentum is building.

Accounts Payable 76

Accounts Payable Invoicing Reconciliations B2B 76

PYMNTS

SEPTEMBER 24, 2018

What can you say about a cryptocurrency that shows a meteoric rise, surging more than 80 percent in a day? That maybe … you wished you had some in hand? Beyond that, we’re talking about cryptocurrencies, so the question must be posed, as always, when separating hope from hype: Is it different this time? That means looking into not just “what” happened, but also “why” it happened.

Currencies 76

Currencies Banking Marketing Securities 76

PYMNTS

SEPTEMBER 24, 2018

Before there was Alexa , Bixby , Siri and Google Assistant , there was Emma Nutt. Emma Nutt, born in 1860 in a small town in Maine, was hired by Alexander Graham Bell in 1878 to be the world’s first female telephone switchboard operator. When Bell’s invention — the telephone — was first introduced, phones were sold in pairs, and calls could be made between those two parties only.

Transportation 76

Transportation Manufacturing Forecasting Leverage 76

PYMNTS

SEPTEMBER 24, 2018

Whether in Australia, India, Europe or the United States, mobile phones aren’t just driving interconnectivity, but are the key channel driving innovation in payments and commerce. Still, even in this digital world, where everyone and everything is connected via mobile, going global can be tough for a company looking to expand its operations abroad. Payments landscapes in different regions can vary greatly, and to succeed, businesses need to know the ropes.

Leverage 76

Leverage Economics Marketing Technology 76

Speaker: Victor C. Barnes, CPA, MBA

In the climb from contributor to leader, the rules quietly change. 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 (a concept first popularized by Marshall Goldsmith in his book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There ). 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.

Accounting

PYMNTS

SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

NACHA — The Electronic Payments Association — announced that its membership has approved three new rules that will expand Same-Day ACH for all financial institutions and their customers. The first rule will allow Same-Day ACH transactions to be submitted to the ACH Network for an additional two hours every business day, while the second boosts the Same-Day ACH per-transaction dollar limit to $100,000, and the third rule increases the speed of funds availability for certain Same-Day ACH and next

76

76

PYMNTS

SEPTEMBER 26, 2018

The latest corporate banking offering by Citi aims to virtualize treasurer accounts for more personalized, streamlined services. The bank said in an announcement Tuesday (Sept. 25) that it is rolling out Citi Virtual Accounts for institutional clients. The tool lets corporate customers segregate balances within their physical accounts into virtual ones, which can offer enhanced receivables, payments and liquidity management.

Accounting 75

Accounting Reconciliations Treasury Currencies 75

PYMNTS

SEPTEMBER 21, 2018

Robotics process automation (RPA) is a fast-rising star in the enterprise software space, touting its ability to go beyond surface-level automation and provide true efficiencies to businesses. Investors are clearly impressed, thanks to a funding round for one startup that now claims it may be the fastest-growing enterprise software company in history.

B2B 75

B2B Startups Accounts Payable Investments 75

PYMNTS

SEPTEMBER 18, 2018

Amazon announced on Tuesday (Sept. 18) the launch of a new API, dubbed Alexa Gadget Toolkit, which is aimed at creating more functions for the Alexa Gadgets. According to Amazon, Alexa Gadgets are accessories that pair to compatible Echo devices via Bluetooth and extend Alexa’s abilities with motors, lights and sound chips, among other things. The toolkit offers developers self-service APIs, including Gadget Interfaces, which provide the metadata of Alexa capabilities on compatible Echo devices.

Communication 75

Communication eCommerce Securities Numbers 75

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.

Finance

PYMNTS

SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

Amazon.com Inc. is reportedly gearing up to launch a new store later Monday (September 17) where consumers can shop the U.S. small and medium sized businesses that sell on the platform. According to a report in FoxBusiness.com, the store is being called Amazon Storefronts and gives customers access to a more than one million products from close to 20,000 U.S. businesses.

Advertising 75

Advertising eCommerce Sales Retail 75

PYMNTS

SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

Stripe, the payments company, announced on Monday (Sept. 17) the launch of Stripe Terminal, a product that will enable online businesses and platforms to accept in-person payments with Stripe. In a press release, Stripe said Stripe Terminal extends its infrastructure to the physical world, enabling developers to build custom payment experiences for in-person transactions in the same way they have been doing it for online merchants.

Retail 75

Retail Securities Sales 75

PYMNTS

SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

Taxify , the African ride-hailing app company, is ahead of Uber Technologies, moving from an Estonian startup to a tech unicorn within five years, reported The Wall Street Journal ( WSJ ). According to a report in the paper citing Taxify, the company has 2.4 million active users in six African countries including Uganda, South Africa, Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya and Ghana.

Transportation 75

Transportation Valuation Startups Investments 75

PYMNTS

SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

Phishers caught a big one — any way it’s sliced, $81 million is a big haul. The fraudsters who hacked their way into the Bangladesh central bank two years ago got there by getting into software tied to the SWIFT financial platform. The way they got there? By casting a line by email, of course, offering a cautionary tale for anyone who sees a link they are quick to click.

Banking 75

Banking Entertainment Accounting Communication 75

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.

Finance