May, 2016

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Barclays Taps B2B Payment Startup For Accelerator

PYMNTS

Barclays recently announced the companies picked for its Tel Aviv accelerator program, according to reports, and while officials at the banks touted a focus on payments security, the bank has also targeted corporate payments in its startup batch. Of the 2,000 startups that applied to join the Barclays Accelerator program , just 40 were accepted, the bank’s head of open innovation, Arian Lewis, recently told Finance Magnates.

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The Robo-Accountants Are Coming

Boston Startup CFO

A recent story in The New York Times story sent shivers throughout the alleyways of downtown Manhattan with its bold headline, “The Robots Are Coming for Wall Street.” Conjuring images of Arnold Schwarzenegger, armed with scientific calculator and a mandate to snuff out armies of analysts, the story painted a picture of a not-so-distant future in which half of Wall Street loses their jobs to automation software.

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Forter Tops Gartner Cool Vendor List For Innovation In Fraud

PYMNTS

It’s no secret that, as fraudsters continue to evolve and increase the sophistication of their tactics, the­ fraud prevention landscape must do the same in order to stay one step ahead. In an effort to show some recognition to the “good guys” out there and the innovative efforts being made to disrupt their respective marketplaces, Gartner has identified the recipients of this year’s “Cool Vendor” recognitions.

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Uber In Dubai Now Includes Yachts

PYMNTS

Though it’s an officially discouraged practice among drivers, Uber has been burning rubber with ambitious partnerships and service expansions over the past few months. What happens when Uber runs out of road to innovate on, though? It goes aquatic. Uber confirmed to CNN on Friday (April 29) that it would embark on a new venture in Dubai over the weekend where a chartered yacht will ferry a lucky dozen riders through the Middle Eastern city’s waterways.

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Why Tech-Forward Tax and Accounting Firms Have the Inside Track to the Future

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

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Why Mobile Matters In Restaurant Payments

PYMNTS

When looking for evidence as to why in-store mobile payments haven’t taken off (a hot topic in Karen Webster’s column this week), there are a number of factors to consider but only one real guiding principle: certainty. Consumers need to know that they can use that method of payment where they like to shop and that it will work the same way each and every time.

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PayPal’s Plans To ‘Rewire Commerce’

PYMNTS

PayPal’s CEO Dan Schulman made it pretty clear during his company’s analyst day yesterday (May 18) that his vision for PayPal is about much more than being a digital payments platform and much, much more than just a “checkout” button on a website. The “new PayPal,” he emphasized, is all about opening up its ecosystem and finding the right partners to help collectively move commerce onto a totally different playing field.

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Online Fraud’s Biggest Problem: Scale

PYMNTS

Online fraud problem? What fraud problem? Judging from the latest Benchmark Report from CyberSource, online merchants are not only doing a great job of managing fraud, they are doing it across all online channels — and across all types of businesses. Doug Schwegman, Director of Market Intelligence at CyberSource, told MPD CEO Karen Webster that “what’s interesting is that trends are positive,” though Schwegman acknowledged that the study of 307 businesses was done last fall bef

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YellowPepper Picks A Peck Of Payments In LatAm

PYMNTS

Like many developing areas, Latin America holds promise for payments companies and the burgeoning movement to digital transactions in lieu of coins and paper bills. In an interview with PYMNTS, Alexander Sjogren, YellowPepper’s CTO, stated that his firm has evolved beyond its initial underpinnings in the mobile banking services segment focusing on underbanked and underserved populations.

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What Consumers Want In Transaction Alerts

PYMNTS

[link]. In the age of sophisticated cyberfraud, and more specifically fraudulent payments, it’s not enough for cardholders around the globe to wait till their statements arrive in the mail (paper or electronic) and ferret out suspicious activity. By then the damage has been done, the trail has run cold. To that end, TSYS, the global payments solutions provider, said earlier this month that it has begun offering its cardholder alerts solution to its clients based in Europe, with an eye on pushing

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Live Demo - Supercharge your Month End Close

Automation generally supercharges any process and brings its value to the forefront. See how infusing automation such as ART (our month-end close solution), into your close can get you to the next level of closing. We will share a live demo of SkyStem's solution, ART and share the key elements of month-end close automation. Through ART, we'll take a look at: What month-end close automation entails Which process steps can and should be automated Benefits of achieving process automation, and Why i

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Bitcoin Creator Craig Wright Steps Forward

PYMNTS

After a few years of speculation — and a couple of fairly notable wrong guesses — the real creator of bitcoin has been identified — mostly because he identified himself. Australian entrepreneur Craig Wright has stepped forward and admitted to being the real “Satoshi Nakamoto.” Apart from the claim, Wright has also submitted proof in the form of coins known to be owned by bitcoin’s creator.

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How FedEx Is Commerce-Enabling The World

PYMNTS

The data doesn’t lie. Cross-border commerce is a $1 trillion source of incremental revenue for merchants. But it’s also an opportunity that most of them are ill-prepared to benefit from. The last quarterly update of the PYMNTS X-Border Payments Optimization Index shows that most merchants barely get a passing grade when it comes to being open to a cross-border shopper.

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What “60 Minutes” Missed About FinTech

PYMNTS

Over the weekend, CBS brought FinTech to prime time during a segment of its “60 Minutes” broadcast on Sunday (May 1). The program offered an exciting and broad overview of how startups in the space are using technology to innovate the delivery of payments and financial services. Lesley Stahl, who hosted the segment, used Stripe as an example of how FinTech is transforming payments and, in particular, how they simplify the process new merchants face when attempting to accept payments online.

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Payroll, And Other B2B Payments, Ounce By Golden Ounce

PYMNTS

Paper checks. Foreign exchange rates. Settlement times. All points of pain and friction in cross-border payments and all factors that can stymie cash flow for firms and even the smallest sole proprietors or freelancers that operate in a global, always-on economy. Earlier this month, GoldMoney , a FinTech that operates a financial services and payments platform that uses gold to settle transactions globally in any currency, launched its Gold Payroll and Gold Payout applications.

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Mid-Year Review: How to Ignite Employee Potential Through Meaningful Feedback

Mid-year performance reviews aren’t just boxes for HR to check. Paycor’s toolkit empowers leaders to: Identify high-potential team members. Boost engagement with meaningful feedback. Support struggling employees. Nurture top talent to drive results. Learn how to ignite employee potential through meaningful feedback. When you nurture top talent, everybody wins.

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Daily Data Dive: Chip Card Migration Stats

PYMNTS

The latest stats released by MasterCard give more optimism about the U.S. EMV adoption rate by merchants and issuers. And for today’s Daily Data Dive 5-in-1, PYMNTS has broken those stats down: 1.2 Million | The number of chip-active merchant locations as of April 30, 2016. 121 | The percentage increase in EMV-enabled merchant locations since the Oct. 1 deadline. 67 | The percentage of U.S.

Numbers 46
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Will AP Rise To The Challenge As A Strategic Function Of The Enterprise?

PYMNTS

If you think of the rise of corporate America over the last century, the function of the accounts payable department probably doesn’t come to mind as one of the main players. But something has happened over the last few years, according to Coupa VP of Strategy and Product Marketing Donna Wilczek: Technology has enabled AP professionals to become strategic and massively important to the success of any corporation, large or small.

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Top Digital Banking Players Ranked

PYMNTS

The digital banking industry is heating up — and fast. That’s why, in the May edition of the PYMNTS Digital Banking Tracker™ , we’ve profiled 58 players from the FinTech and consumer banking space, including 10 additions to the Tracker: CashControl, CSI, Finex Banking Solutions, HelloWallet, Innofis, Kony, Money Lover, SilverWiz, The One Place Capital Limited and Q2 Software, Inc.

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B2B Deals Bust (And Zooz Raises Funds For International Moves )

PYMNTS

On the consumer end of an eCommerce transaction, these days, clicking the buy button is usually the end of the road. Usually, the transaction goes through, the widget goes into the mail and everyone goes to bed happy. Sometimes, the card gets declined, the consumer gets frustrated, moves on and the merchant misses the sale. Now, if there was legitimately something amiss with the card — it happened to be stolen, for example — then that rejection is a good thing, because, by rejecting the transact

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Your Accounting Expertise Will Only Get You So Far: What Really Matters

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.

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Trade Fraud Is ‘Ground Zero’ For Banks And Blockchain

PYMNTS

Banks may not always be up for overhauling their operations with a largely untested, disruptive technology, but new reports suggest the threat of fraud in one area of corporate finance is encouraging financial institutions to adopt distributed ledger technology in growing volumes. Reports by Bloomberg on Sunday (May 22) said banks are examining ways to protect themselves against fraud in the trade finance sector, worth $4 trillion in today’s market.

Banking 46
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The Dawn of Banking Voice Technology

PYMNTS

Remember when you first asked Siri some silly question only to receive a response that indicated she was onto your shtick and potentially not as thoroughly amused by it as you were? That, as it turns out, was the good old days of voice technology assistance. Today the incorporation of voice technology into daily activities runs the gamut, from taking music requests on-demand to ordering from Amazon to typing your texts for you.

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Say ‘Hello’ To … Voice Banking?

PYMNTS

“Siri, help me find the nearest Starbucks.”. “Hey Cortana, play some yacht rock.”. “Alexa, pay cable bill.”. This month’s Digital Banking Tracker™ cover story features an interview with Ed Metzger, Santander UK’s Head of Innovation about their early feedback from incorporating a voice assistant into their student-focused SmartBank app – and what’s next for voice technology in banking.

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Artificial Intelligence Seeks Real Shoppers

PYMNTS

Let’s check in with who’s on the AI (artificial intelligence) train. Apple kicked things off this year, announcing back in January that it had purchased Emotient, an AI tech startup in the facial recognition business. Did Apple say why it bought that company? Of course, it did not ; mind your own business. Jump ahead to spring, and the next big company in the retail space (specifically, the biggest company in eCommerce) to make an AI-related move this year was Amazon.

Math 46
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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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MasterCard Makes Robots Pay

PYMNTS

We don’t have to look far to see the ways in which cartoons and comics of the past – with their futuristic tools and services – are influencing the advancing technologies we see hitting the market today. Though we may not have reached the threshold of flying cars and warp drives just yet, robotics are quickly starting to change the ways in which humans approach many different aspects of our everyday lives.

Retail 45
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Clothing Rental Extends Its Lease

PYMNTS

Although the traditional retail industry in the U.S. continues to struggle mightily , surely there are verticals within it that are largely immune to such troubles by sheer virtue of the fact that they trade in essential items … right? Sort of, but also — not exactly. If we break down “essential items” into three categories — food, clothing and shelter — we’re looking at a trio of verticals wherein each one has still had to weather the storm of the current retail climate in its own way.

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Should Obama ‘Heed The Call’ On Bitcoin?

PYMNTS

President Barack Obama and his administration get a lot of demands, to say the least. Stop ISIS, bring peace to the Middle East, clean up the economy, create more jobs, fix the education system, lower taxes, etc., etc. Of course, that’s just what comes with the territory. One thing that’s probably not higher on that rapidly growing list?

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This App Makes Credit Card Payments Automatic

PYMNTS

There’s a new app in town that wants to make it easier to remember to pay those credit cards. Or as its co-founder Jason Brown told Mashable : “It’s kind of like a self driving car for your credit card.” Yes, the apps have taken over. And it has one goal: making sure those credit card companies don’t slap the consumer with another late fee again.

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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.