Sat.Feb 24, 2018 - Fri.Mar 02, 2018

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HSBC Ready To Test Blockchain Trade Finance

PYMNTS

Banking and financial services firm HSBC says its blockchain-based trade finance solution is ready to launch — in pilot phase, at least. According to Wednesday (Feb. 28) reports by the Global Trade Review , the bank’s senior innovation manager, Joshua Kroeker, held a media call and announced that after developing the trade finance solution for about two years, HSBC is “confident enough to actually do a live transaction” using its blockchain technology.

Finance 79
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FLEETCOR And Ripple In Payments Pilot Program

PYMNTS

Commercial payments provider FLEETCOR Technologies, Inc. announced news on Thursday (March 1) that it has entered a pilot program with enterprise blockchain solution firm Ripple and Cambridge Global Payments , the international payments provider focused on B2B and owned by FLEETCOR. The companies said in a release that under the terms of the agreement with Ripple , Cambridge — which processes more than $20 billion in B2B cross-border payments annually, across 13,000 business clients — will pilo

B2B 76
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NACHA And IFX Forum Join Forces To Boost API Development

PYMNTS

NACHA and the Interactive Financial eXchange (IFX) Forum have announced plans to combine their organizations to improve the development of standardized Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). The partnership, which is expected to be finalized at the end of the first quarter, will speed up the creation and rollout of standardized banking APIs. “The powerful combination of IFX Forum’s established leadership in financial industry standards, along with additional technical expertise in the area o

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Feds File Charges In International Fraud Scheme Involving A Picasso

PYMNTS

For their alleged roles in a massive stock fraud and money laundering scam involving a Picasso, the U.S. Department of Justice has criminally charged 10 defendants. Prosecutors named U.K.-based Beaufort Securities Ltd and two of its managers, among others, in the case, according to news from Reuters. Prosecutors said Beaufort and managers Peter Kyriacou and Vinesh Canaye manipulated the prices of U.S. stocks through “pump-and-dump schemes,” while hiding their ownership in the companies.

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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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A Clean, Green, Restroom-Monetizing Machine

PYMNTS

Imagine a coffee shop. In this imaginary coffee shop — let’s call it Mooncheddar — there are tables and chairs, a service counter staffed by hip, young millennials with half-shaved heads, delicious and ethically sourced coffees, pastries baked in-house, free WiFi and even mobile ordering. Mooncheddar sounds like it has it all. But would you eat and drink there if the restrooms were filthy?

Retail 59

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Millenials Lose More Money To Scams Than Seniors

PYMNTS

Millennials are apparently reporting losing money to fraud more often than seniors. But when seniors do become financial victims, they typically take a bigger hit than millennials do, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said in a press release. Forty percent of those aged 20-29 who reported fraud indicated they lost money, while only 18 percent of those 70 and older said they lost any funds.

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Nearly 50 Percent Of 2017’s ICOs Are Crashing And Burning

PYMNTS

Of the initial coin offerings that blasted onto the scene in 2017 along with the price of bitcoin , 46 percent have failed. That’s according to Engadget , which — citing data from TokenData — reported that of the 902 ICOs in 2017, 46 percent have failed. Among that percentage, 142 never got the funding and another 276 have faded away or were scams. What’s more, the report noted that another 113 ICOs have stopped talking about their project online or haven’t had enough adopters that success will

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In the Gig Economy, (Payments) Speed Thrills, But Added Fees Chill

PYMNTS

The gig economy is out in full force, spanning the globe and any number of jobs, from welding to wedding planning, from knitting to pet sitting. The platform’s the thing, then, that brings the supply and demand together. Or, it should. In the latest Data Drivers, PYMNTS’ Karen Webster, along with Hyperwallet’s Michael Ting, senior vice president of digital markets, delved into the friction that exists in online marketplaces that brings together the gig worker and the gig worker employers …

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Bitcoin’s Bitmain Rakes In $4B In Profits

PYMNTS

Bitcoin investors may be losing money, but the companies that support this burgeoning market aren’t. Bitmain, a Chinese company that makes bitcoin mining hardware and operates a mining farm, raked in between $3 billion and $4 billion in profits last year. CNBC , citing estimates from Bernstein Research, the Wall Street investment firm, reported that based on estimates for gross margins of 75 percent and operating margins of 65 percent, the company made between $3 billion and $4 billion in

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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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Payments, Behind And Beyond The Buzzwords

PYMNTS

Push payments. Instant payments. Real-time payments. Every endeavor has its vocabulary, and the payments arena is no different. Although industry observers and participants use the above terms interchangeably, there are differences in transaction timing that can make all the difference to recipients. In short, when it comes to speed, all payments are not created equal.

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Rethinking The Reputation Of The Merchant Cash Advance

PYMNTS

Of all the loan options available to small businesses today, the merchant cash advance (MCA) may not be a borrower’s first choice. Like the payday loan, the MCA has a reputation for high fees, and is sometimes the only option for borrowers with poor credit histories. “The merchant cash industry first started as a product for unbankable clients,” said Andrew Mallinger, COO of PIRS Capital, in a recent interview with PYMNTS.

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AltFin Shines As Investor Interest In B2B FinTech Continues

PYMNTS

Toward the start of 2018, analysts began to highlight the potential for venture capital (VC) to embrace the B2B business model. American Banker reported last December that Silicon Valley Bank Head of Payments Strategy and Solutions Reetika Grewal predicted B2B payments to be one of the top targets for FinTech investors, while other focuses with B2B applicability — including blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI) and RegTech — would also be popular with VCs in the coming year.

B2B 47
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Amazon Business Payments Eyed With Giromatch, Degussa Bank Collab

PYMNTS

Germany’s Degussa Bank and FinTech Giromatch are teaming up to help businesses procure via Amazon Business and manage cash flow. An announcement last week said corporate customers of Degussa will be linked to a virtual card they can use to make purchases off Amazon Business. Giromatch will integrate its “digital account view” capabilities for Degussa via application programming interface (API), enabling the bank to make faster business loan decisions with access to transaction data.

Banking 47
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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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Zensoft Moves To Accept Cryptocurrencies For Enterprise Software Projects

PYMNTS

Enterprise software company Zensoft wants to accept cryptocurrencies from its corporate clients and has announced a partnership with OPEN to facilitate that goal. The companies said Monday (Feb. 26) they are working together to enable Zensoft to accept digital currencies as payment for enterprise software development projects. The software company will deploy OPEN’s API, its blockchain Scaffolds and its State transaction receipts solution.

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China’s Bank Regulator Makes Foreign Investments Easier

PYMNTS

In an effort to bring more investments to the financial sector, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) has overhauled rules to make things easier for foreign investors. According to a report in Reuters , citing a statement made by state media agency Xinhua, the CBRC overhauled regulations for foreign banks, eliminating the steps a foreign investor must take in overseas wealth management products and portfolio investment funds.

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Alibaba Is Hungry For More Of Food Delivery Service Ele.me

PYMNTS

In a possible deal to strengthen its delivery network in China, Alibaba reported plans to buy out Baidu and other investors in food delivery startup Ele.me. If the deal goes through, Alibaba would control a large portion of the online food delivery business in China, Bloomberg reported. Already, Alibaba owns 23 percent of Ele.me — which translates to “hungry yet?

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Prices Are Going Up To Cover Shipping Costs

PYMNTS

Shipping — by road, sea, air or rail — is becoming more costly as operators across shipping routes push for higher margins. That push has left some of America’s larger retail players like General Mills and Tyson in a rather difficult bind, according to a recent Reuters article. Such firms can either pay more for deliveries and see their own margins take a hit, or pass the costs to customers and risk alienating them with higher prices.

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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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JPMC’s CFO Marianne Lake Emerges As Contender To Replace Dimon

PYMNTS

JPMorgan Chase’s chief financial officer has emerged as the top contender to replace the company’s current Chairman and Chief Executive James Dimon, who will step down in five years. According to The Wall Street Journal , Marianne Lake, one of the most senior women in finance, is on the bank’s short list of possible successors. If it turns out to be true, she would become the first female chief executive of one of the largest U.S. banks.

CFO 46
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TRENDING: Buskers Add mPOS To Their Act

PYMNTS

For street performers who swallow fire or twist into contortions, not getting hurt might seem like their biggest concern. But, increasingly, buskers are facing a new hurdle, one that threatens their income rather than their bodies. The problem? With more consumers turning to mobile and card-based payments, few carry cash that can be spared for tips.

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Amazon’s Alexa Lost Her Voice This Morning

PYMNTS

If Amazon wants everyone to rely on its voice-activated smart assistant Alexa, today revealed that many, many people are doing exactly that; Alexa complaints lodged with the service Down Detector spiked massively on Friday morning (March 2). It appears a regional outage that affected Amazon Web Services (AWS) caused the voice assistant to go temporarily silent.

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Is The Putin Family Using An Estonian Bank For Money Laundering?

PYMNTS

Reports out this morning indicated that a whistleblower inside Denmark’s biggest bank warned the institution that its Estonian branch was being used by members of the Putin family as a front for money laundering. That warning was reportedly in 2013. A leaked report allegedly indicated that the leadership at Danske Bank knew “of far more serious conditions than previously stated.

Banking 45
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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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The Newest Bitcoin Heist – Boosting The Mining Tech

PYMNTS

Why steal bitcoin when you can steal the technology that enables one to make more of it? Clearly, this is the question a group of Icelandic thieves pondered before making their move on 600 computers used to “mine” bitcoin. The hardware was reportedly snatched from data centers in Iceland in what local law enforcement calls the biggest theft in the island nation’s histor y.

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Cardtronics Identifies Crypto, P2P Payments As Business Risks

PYMNTS

As new payment technologies — such as digital coins make it less necessary for people to handle cash, Cardtronics said cryptocurrencies could impact its business. The disclosure was made in a 10-K report to shareholders and was filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), CoinDesk reported. “New payment technology, such as Venmo , Zelle and virtual currencies such as bitcoin or other new payment method preferences by consumers, could reduce the general population’s need or dem

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Mastercard To Launch New Ways To Make Digital Payments

PYMNTS

Mastercard , the payment company, announced a series of digital payment initiatives on Tuesday (Feb. 27) aimed at different segments of the market. In a press release , Mastercard said that as of March 19, Mastercard ’s Qkr! with Masterpass will be available at all U.K. Pizza Hut locations. With the service, diners at its U.K. restaurants will be able to pay for their meals via their mobile phones without having to ask a waiter for the bill, which, the company said, will save customers 12 minu

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NEW REPORT: Mueller Indictments Prompt Renewed Look At Social Security Numbers

PYMNTS

In the digital identity space, biometrics have become all the rage. In several markets around the world, biometric solutions are gaining ground among consumers, companies and government organizations. These solutions could shift the way national security agencies in several countries operate, or force employers to change how they authenticate and identify their employees.

Numbers 44
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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.