Sat.Jun 11, 2016 - Fri.Jun 17, 2016

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Toronto’s Rising Digital Star

PYMNTS

In this week’s edition of PYMNTS’ Weekly Tech Center Roundup , we take a look at Canada’s “economic powerhouse” and explore why Toronto may just be the next great tech startup creator. Before we jump into the post, here are a few quick facts about Toronto, Canada and its tech scene: Estimated population was 6.2 million as of 2016. The city’s GDP tops $304 billion.

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Valuation For Startups - 9 Methods Explained

Boston Startup CFO

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Tapp Commerce Secures $9M To Expand P2P Payments

PYMNTS

Tapp Commerce , the peer-to-peer commerce exchange network that traces its roots to Finland but has been targeting expansion in Asia, said on Sunday (June 12) that it has garnered $9 million to help fund growth initiatives. The firm said via release that the latest funding brings the cumulative investment in the firm to date to just under $13 million.

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Visa’s Merchant-Friendly EMV Moves

PYMNTS

Visa is the first to admit that a lot of progress has been made in the U.S. EMV migration over the last seven months. Today, there are 300 million chip cards in circulation and 1.2 million EMV merchant locations. It’s also the first to say that there could and should be more places for consumers to use their chip cards. Terminal certification has, so far, been a big barrier to making that possible, and the hue and cry across the ecosystem over the EMV certification backlog has now reached

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Planning Your Restaurants Path to Profitability

Speaker: James Kahler, COO of Full Course

Ever wondered where to splurge and where to safely conserve when it comes to operating and growing your restaurant? 🤔 Join James Kahler, COO of Full Course and industry visionary, in this new webinar where he'll talk all about best practices to invest in your restaurant's success! Whether you're a new business or an established restaurant, a seasoned pro or a rookie, you'll learn the keys to sustainable success in this competitive industry.

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Visa Reduces Fraud At The Pump By 50+ Percent

PYMNTS

Gas stations offer a lot of benefits for card fraudsters. They’re unattended, which makes it easy (and even inconspicuous) for them to check out whether their counterfeit cards are alive and well and ready to use. Recognizing that problem for station owner/operators, in 2014, Visa introduced the Visa Transaction Advisor (VTA) to help these retailers fight back, especially given the anticipated lag in equipping fuel pumps with EMV readers.

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Why FIs Have Trouble Identifying Fraudulent Activity

PYMNTS

It’s getting harder for financial institutions to distinguish between fraudulent activity and the activity performed by their legitimate customers. According to research from Kaspersky Lab and B2B International , released on Tuesday (June 14), nearly 38 percent of financial organizations find it very difficult to tell if a customer’s account activity is fraudulent or not.

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Shoplifting: Retail’s $45 Billion Problem

PYMNTS

Retailers are struggling to keep tabs on shoplifters who are increasingly becoming their top source of loss, averaging $377 per incidence, up $60 from the year before. At 39 percent, shoplifting was found to be the biggest contributor among factors that led to overall inventory shrinkage in 2015 causing a $45.2 billion loss across the United States, according to NRF’s 2016 National Retail Security survey.

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A Security Lapse Is Just A Bump In The Road To Faster, Better B2B Payments

PYMNTS

The interbank messaging firm SWIFT has had a rough few months. Cyberattackers were able to steal $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank by compromising the SWIFT messaging system , forcing the company — and financial services players everywhere — to take a renewed look at payments security measures. The security compromise hasn’t led FinServ firms to shy away from the global payments messaging company, however.

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Canada’s CAD-COIN — And Bitcoin’s Price Rally

PYMNTS

Is the concept of “experimenting with a digital dollar” the financial services industry’s version of the hula hoop? Flash in the pan sizzle that will soon crash and fizzle? Bank of Canada has put its toe in that digital dollar water by announcing this week that it was working with one of the largest banks in the land (of Canada) to create its own electronic version of the Canadian dollar : CAD-COIN, a blockchain-based digital fiat currency.

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How Automation is Driving Efficiency Through the Last Mile of Reporting

Speaker: Jamie Eagan

As organizations strive for agility and efficiency, it's imperative for finance leaders to embrace innovative technologies and redefine traditional processes. Join us as we explore the pivotal role of digitalization and automation in reshaping what is commonly referred to as the “last mile of reporting”. We’ll deep-dive into why digitalization is no longer a choice, but a necessity for finance departments to stay competitive in a fast-paced environment touching on: 2024 trends for the Office of

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Walmart To Make Robotic Shopping Carts A Reality

PYMNTS

Pushing heavy carts across Walmart stores might soon be a thing of past. The retail giant is working on developing smart shopping carts that are capable of helping customers look for items on their shopping list. The robotic shopping carts would also save Walmart customers the trouble of pushing them around the store and into the parking lot, Bloomberg reported.

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Home Depot Sues MasterCard, Visa Over Chip Card Security

PYMNTS

Visa and MasterCard are using security measures prone to fraud, putting retailers and customers at risk of thieves, The Home Depot says in a new federal antitrust lawsuit. It’s the latest large retailer to raise the security concerns, with a lawsuit filed this week in U.S. District Court in Atlanta. Last month, Walmart sued Visa over similar issues.

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Apple Pay’s Unattended Retail Boost

PYMNTS

Advertising is designed to drive sales but it’s often tough to close the loop and prove the point. It’s a question that USA Technologies, a leader in digitizing payments for unattended retail , wanted answered with respect to the use of mobile payments to buy goodies in vending machines. As they say, survey says … it does … and for a very particular mobile payments provider: Apple Pay.

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Mobile Banking and Millennials – Will the Love Last?

PYMNTS

A lot of fuss is made over millennials and their proclivities toward things being easy. What’s often lost in this dismissive, overarching perception is that easy is not the same as lazy. But really, why would this generation – or any other – not look for an easier way to do things? Marathons and other tests of endurance aside, unless there’s some sort of positive outcome for taking a more tedious, labor intensive route, why would anyone take it?

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Register Now: Sneak Peek Into Close Automation SkyStem Web Demo

Technology is rapidly changing the way accountants perform and manage month-end activities. Spreadsheets, email, and shared drives no longer have to slow us down. Join us as we present a "sneak peek" recorded demo of SkyStem's month-end close solution – ART. In under four weeks, your team can start reaping the benefits of month-end close automation by vastly reducing spreadsheets, cut down on reconciliation work, speed up the month-end close, and better manage your remote team.

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Why All The Cool (Affluent) Kids Are Shopping At the Dollar Store

PYMNTS

If you were asked to describe the average Dollar Store consumer, most people are likely to think of the phrases “working class” or “low income.” But as it turns out, the dollar stores (Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, Dollar General, etc) are increasingly attracting a set of buyers that may surprise most: young affluent shoppers merely looking for a bargain.

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IBM Adds Apple Pay Web Payments

PYMNTS

Apple Pay will soon be coming to IBM ‘s website to serve its commercial clients with the ability to use Apple Pay to pay on the iPhone, iPad or Mac with just one touch. IBM announced this week that it will offer Apple pay to clients that use IBM’s WebSphere Commerce or IBM Commerce on Cloud. WebSphere Commerce currently powers over 12,000 store fronts for online retailers globally and provides omnichannel shopping experiences.

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China’s Millennials Driving Mobile Payments Market

PYMNTS

Mobile device users ages 21–29 and 30–39 are leading the charge in the country’s mobile payments adoption. Millennials in China make the vast majority of the mobile payments taking place, eMarketer reported on Thursday (June 16). Data from Ipsos found that these young adults living in tier 1 and 2 cities in China use their mobile devices to pay for bills, conduct transactions and participate in online-to-offline commerce and other payment-related activities.

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Brexit A Thorn In FinTech’s Side?

PYMNTS

Will it really happen? Thus far polls show that in the U.K., with an eye on the European Union, the answer to the question “should I stay or should I go” is … go. . A June 23 vote is scheduled and being watched with bated breath to see if the U.K. does indeed go its own way. For FinTech, where the U.K. has been at the forefront of technology and innovation, with the wholesale backing of the government, the problems would start almost immediately, once an exit is actually engineered.

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Accounting Software and ERP Readiness Guide

In this white paper, we explore the factors to consider in deciding whether the time is right for your Company to consider a new ERP or accounting software, the total cost of ownership and plans necessary to make the potential leap to these systems.

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Retail Sales Inch Up In May

PYMNTS

Retail sales in May surpassed expectations with an increase in consumer spending that is projected to uplift the U.S. economy in the second quarter. Retail sales grew by 0.5 percent, beating a projection of 0.3 percent increase in sales. The increase comes on the heels of a 1.3 percent boost in sales last month, which marked the biggest gain in sales this year, Bloomberg reported.

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FinTech’s Digital Identity Crisis

PYMNTS

“We’re having a digital identity crisis in financial services, and it’s starting to get in the way of the access to payments and financial services that consumers and business that they interact with increasingly want and need.”. That was the crux of a recent digital discussion Karen Webster had with Ken Allen, SVP of operations at Socure , when the two dug into one increasingly evolving, complex topic that’s driving the future of payments and financial services: authenticating the consume

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Target And The Troubles With Ship-From-Store

PYMNTS

For the many retailers racing toward retail’s future, ship-from-store has emerged as a saving grace for a multitude of reasons. If a merchant has a network of stores, often located within an hour or less of their consumer base, why wouldn’t they leverage that advantage when it comes to putting goods into consumers’ hands? Furthermore, the web has no shortage of articles pitching the wonders of ship-from-store as the solution to a variety of retailer woes.

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P2P Lending’s Fatal Mistake

PYMNTS

[link]. Matchmaker, matchmaker … make me a match. If only it were that easy. Or, if we were back in the good old “Fiddler On The Roof” days, the concept of the multi-sided platforms weren’t a driving topic of conversation. Even so, the idea of matchmaking — an age-old concept — is alive and well, but it’s rapidly changing as the concept of a two-sided relationship has evolved the very way consumers, companies and investors in the payments and commerce industries in

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Recruit and Retain New Blue-Collar Talent

Blue-collar jobs have a branding problem. One company, GEON, partnered with Paycor to find the solution. Learn how to attract, engage, and retain blue-collar employees, helping them build meaningful careers – and support your company’s goals.

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Walmart’s Unusual Drone Use Case

PYMNTS

When most people think retail applications for drones at this point, they are likely thinking about delivery. Some eagerly anticipate the drone-based commerce logistics, others fear it, but in general both sides are in agreement that when one is talking retail drones, they are talking about using it to move goods. But Walmart has some different ideas about the highest and best good drones can offer their retail operations.

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What Apple Didn’t Tell You Last Week

PYMNTS

This piece will give you important insight that hasn’t been covered about Apple’s developer announcement last week. So, keep reading. I promise it will be worth it. But we have to get into the right frame of mind – and for that we must first visit Sweden. Stockholm is one of my favorite cities in the world and has become a real FinTech innovation hub.

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What Corporate Managers Get Right (And Wrong)

PYMNTS

This week’s Data Digest goes out to all of the managers out there. Whether you’re part of the C-suite or an entrepreneur leading your own business, managers keep the business running. The latest reports and studies lift the veil on emerging trends among these corporate managers and reveal a few ways they might want to examine how to do better. 100,000+ public officials will be impacted by government eInvoicing mandates , suggests a report from Billentis.

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Mind Those Mobile Manners

PYMNTS

If new data is to be believed, Americans may be back to taking dinner time extremely seriously. According to the latest Harris Poll, the majority of Americans are sitting down to a “family” meal at least once a week. Where they sit down to have that meal varies, as does what they eat when they do. But there’s one guest who’s no longer welcome at the dinner table: the mobile phone.

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PowerPoint Best Practices for Creating Stellar Presentations

Mastering data visualization in PowerPoint will help accelerate your career because it positions you as someone who can present data that drives business decisions forward. think-cell's PowerPoint Best Practices eBook was created specifically for professionals aiming to master the art and science of data-driven storytelling. What’s inside: Practical Insights: Uncover valuable tips for crafting engaging and persuasive presentations.

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$50M Reportedly Stolen In Virtual Currency Project Hack

PYMNTS

Reports indicate that more than $50 million was stolen from the virtual currency project known as Decentralized Autonomous Organization, which sent out alerts Friday (June 17) saying it may be halting the VC-backed fund in order to protect the project. “The D.A.O. is being attacked,” Griff Green, a community organizer with the company that wrote the project’s software wrote, according to The New York Times ‘ report.

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Amex Quick Chip Launches

PYMNTS

American Express announced the launch of Quick Chip , a service designed to provide a faster route to process EMV chip card transactions at the POS. Amex Quick Chip uses a technology that is said to help merchants provide their consumers with a frictionless and faster in-store checkout experience. For cardmembers who pay using their EMV-enabled chip cards, Amex Quick Chip is available for those merchant processors.

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Visa Announces How It Wants To Help Merchants Accelerate EMV Chip Migration

PYMNTS

Earlier today Visa announced a handful of new moves aimed at pushing EMV chip adoption among merchants. Changes include streamlined tech requirements, an amended (and simplified) terminal certification process, and a further commitment to offering technical support and expertise for merchants. Taken together, Visa believes the changes will help cut the EMV adoption timeline in half.