January, 2018

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The Start Path Class Of 2018 Is Under Construction

PYMNTS

When Mastercard launched the Start Path accelerator program in 2014, the goal – according to VP and senior business leader, Amy Neale – was to make it easier for emerging companies to enter “our world” through a combination of operational support, commercial access and some strategic funding. “And when we talk about our world, we mean not just payments, but FinTech more broadly – and, even more broadly than that, commerce,” she said.

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How to Prepare for M&A Management Presentations

The SaaS CFO

Management Presentations in M&A Due Diligence The banker said to block my calendar for management presentations. Excuse me, what are management presentations? And for two weeks? Yes, and this is only the halfway point. The real “fun” in due diligence comes after the management presentations. However, before we get too far, let’s break down what […].

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Amazon Launches Cooking Smart Home Skill API

PYMNTS

Amazon has expanded into cooking with its latest round of new skills , with the announcement on Thursday (Jan. 4) of the launch of the Smart Home Skill API. In a blog post , Amazon developer Mike Maas said that developers can now build skills to enable U.S. customers to control microwaves via Alexa, its voice-activated digital assistant. Support for other types of cooking devices, such as convection ovens, will be launched soon, the executive said.

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NEW DATA: Retail Kiosks — The Next Billion-Dollar Industry

PYMNTS

One might just call this the age of unattended retail. Increasingly, retailers and other merchants are looking to give customers a more convenient and efficient experience by offering products and services via unattended kiosks. These machines mean that customers can interact with merchants more quickly, without having to waste time standing on a long line or dealing with a slow-moving employee.

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The Human Side of Finance: The Intersectionality of People, Culture, Adaptability, and Resilience

Speaker: Melissa Hurrington

Finance isn’t just about the numbers. It’s about the people behind them. In a world of constant disruption, resilient finance teams aren’t just operationally efficient. They are adaptable, engaged, and deeply connected to a strong organizational culture. Success lies at the intersection of people, culture, adaptability, and resilience. Finance leaders who master this balance will build teams that thrive through uncertainty and drive long-term business impact.

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TRENDING: APIs Bring FIs Back In The B2B Game

PYMNTS

Old and new tech are both coming into play in B2B API. The ever-changing value of bitcoin has been making headlines, and delivering and dashing investors’ dreams along the way. And recently, B2B API players have been tuned in, paying close attention to the cryptocurrency’s rising and falling star. But, more than just watching the cryptocurrency’s value slide up and down, players in the space have increasingly been exploring its underlying blockchain technology — and what that tech could do for B

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Is Cryptocurrency The Key To Shoppable Movie Content?

PYMNTS

No one likes watching ads, and many will go to great lengths to avoid them, including subscription services, time-shifted viewing and pop-up blockers, to name but a few. That’s a big problem for a media industry that is largely fed by advertising revenue. “Hollywood is in trouble,” Federico Pacquing, Reedeux’s founder and CEO, noted. “Over the last decade, the way consumers consume media has changed dramatically.

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2018: The Year Of The Mobile Wallet Reset

PYMNTS

It’s time to talk more about what we’re really trying to accomplish for consumers — and for our businesses — and less about the tactics some are trying, with mixed success, to accomplish that. It’s seemingly all about tactics these days. The 2018 predictions seem more like a laundry list of trends and tactics that’ve emerged over the last several years than a discussion of the profound impact these trends have had on the consumer and business payments experience.

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Stripe Launches Tool To Help Founders File Tax Returns In Minutes

PYMNTS

Stripe has announced an addition to its Stripe Atlas toolkit that will help founders file their corporate tax returns in minutes. This new tool can be especially important for resource-strapped startups, which often have difficulty with the tax process even with the help of an adviser. In fact, 54 percent of Atlas founders reported making a mistake when filing last year’s returns, including paying the incorrect amount, filing late or missing required filings entirely.

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Mastercard Rolls Out Biometric Authentication Mandate Ahead Of European Regulations

PYMNTS

Sometimes eCommerce retailers need to verify a customer’s identity at checkout, but the authentication process often leads to lost sales. Methods like a one-time password sent by text message (SMS), for example, can cause many consumers to abandon their online shopping carts. Customers are more inclined to go through with a purchase when retailers use alternate authentication methods.

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Maximizing Profit and Productivity: The New Era of AI-Powered Accounting

Speaker: Yohan Lobo

In the accounting world, staying ahead means embracing the tools that allow you to work smarter, not harder. Outdated processes and disconnected systems can hold your organization back, but the right technologies can help you streamline operations, boost productivity, and improve client delivery. Dive into the strategies and innovations transforming accounting practices.

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Can Crypto Change The Music Industry?

PYMNTS

Musicians have a complicated relationship with monetizing their art. They create the songs, but the record labels that distribute them tend to own the song catalogs, which, over the decades, has led to a series of thrilling legal disputes over ownership. Think Paul McCartney’s now 40-year fight for the rights to the Beatles albums , or Prince’s decade-long standoff with Warner Brothers.

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OPINION: Is college worth it? Students can learn to calculate the payoff

PYMNTS

Michael Lawrence Collins. Going to college pays off, on average. But to maximize the chance that a college education offers a satisfactory return, students need to think like investors. They need to carefully consider which degrees pay off and why, and they need to make informed decisions about the type of degree and major they select. Investors in financial markets consider many complex variables to mitigate risks and maximize returns.

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How Masabi Makes Public Transit Ticketing Mobile

PYMNTS

It’s a problem with which most commuters are familiar, though many likely wish they were not. They wake up, get ready to go, walk to their bus or train stops and reach for their transit tickets only to realize said ticket is sitting on a dresser or bedside table. Even if they muster up the patience to take that long walk back to their homes and then again to the stations, their troubles might not be over.

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Top UK and US firms still overestimating GDPR readiness

PYMNTS

Less than five months before the compliance deadline for the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), most top UK and US firms are still overestimating their state of readiness, a study suggests

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Smarter Card Solutions: Meeting the Challenges of Mid-Market Travel & Expense

Our 2025 Center Travel Survey is clear: as corporate travel increases, so does corporate credit cards distribution, and a rise in off-platform travel booking. This 61% rise causes various challenges: compliance, spend control, reporting problems, and a lack of visibility across organizations. To evolve with the ever-changing needs of travelers, decision-makers need a better solution.

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ADP: How Payments Power The Evolving Workforce

PYMNTS

Contract, or 1099, workers aren’t a new workforce phenomenon by any stretch of the imagination. But in the era of on-demand services – and a seemingly ever-proliferating number of platforms that match employees to short-term labor contracts – the last decade has been the emergence of the golden era of the gig economy worker. Initially, the rise of the gig economy was adaptive: The U.S. economy was in dire shape, companies were skittish about investing in employees and the labor force rapidly fou

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CapLinked Deploys API To Protect Blockchain B2B Transactions

PYMNTS

Enterprise software company CapLinked is rolling out a way to secure data stored on blockchain platforms. This week, the company announced the launch of TransitNet, a blockchain framework to protect digital assets and data stored on blockchain for enterprise clients. Companies can deploy the protocol via application program interface (API), CapLinked explained in a blog post , to secure transactions and data surrounding key enterprise deals like M&A, licensing, financing and more.

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Banks Say FinTech Innovation, Not Regulation, Is Now Their Fiercest Market Pressure

PYMNTS

The regulatory pressures on banks is not only fierce, it’s also continually changing, forcing financial institutions (FIs) to invest vast resources to stay on top of evolving rules. Regulation has undoubtedly acted as a catalyst to major financial services trends in areas like small business (SMB) lending, faster payments and, most recently, open banking and collaboration with FinTechs.

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Bridging The 40 Percent Gap In Online Banking

PYMNTS

In life, 40 percent of anything is a lot. In online banking, 40 percent abandonment is … intolerable. As many as four in 10 consumers have at some point in their journey into online banking found the process frustrating enough to give up, as estimated by Signicat. The survey from that identity assurance provider, conducted across 2,000 individuals, found that when it comes to applying for financial products at a financial institution (FI) — from checking accounts to credit cards — 40 percent of

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Bringing AI to Finance: How to Leverage Technology for Efficiency and Control

Finance teams are balancing more than ever, but manual processes shouldn’t slow you down. In this ebook from BILL, discover how AI is transforming finance—automating AP, expense tracking, and document management to reduce errors, increase efficiency, and improve financial control. Learn how real companies are using AI-powered automation to streamline workflows, detect anomalies, and gain deeper insights.

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Visa Signs Off On Optional Signatures For EMV Merchants In North America

PYMNTS

No more signatures. Visa said today (Jan. 12) in a blog post that it is making the signature an option — and no longer a requirement — for EMV chip-enabled merchants across North America. That shift, for contact or contactless payments, goes into effect April 2018. At the same time, Visa said in its posting that it will continue to invest in initiatives tied to advanced analytics and biometrics.

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The Argument for Risk-Based Security

PYMNTS

A scanner can identify a vulnerability, but only a deep understanding of cyber exposure will tell you about the seriousness of that risk. Here's how and why.

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eBay Takes Control Of Its Payments Destiny

PYMNTS

In what was described by eBay as an effort to improve customer experience and offer sellers a more competitive cost structure, eBay announced news on Wednesday (Jan. 31) that it will intermediate payments through a multi-year implementation that may last through mid-2020. This move marks a significant change in how buyers and sellers will interact and transact across the company’s online marketplace — namely, by letting shoppers complete their purchases within eBay’s website.

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Vantiv, Worldpay And The New Payments Processing

PYMNTS

Technology services, merchant services, payments processing: These terms woefully minimize the range of needs merchants face in today’s mobile, digital world — and they often fall short of accurately describing the solutions innovators are bringing to market to help merchants maximize their potential. That potential, said Shane Happach, head of Global Enterprise eCommerce at Worldpay , lies at the center of the blurred lines that now define commerce.

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Say ‘Goodbye’ to Clunky Spreadsheets and Say ‘Hello’ to Month-End Automation

Technology is rapidly changing the way accountants perform and manage month-end activities. Spreadsheets, emails, and shared drives no longer need to slow you down. 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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China Goes After Alternative Cryptocurrency Trading Platforms

PYMNTS

China steps up its regulation of cryptocurrency trading by going after online platforms and mobile apps. Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported China’s regulators are eyeing internet-based platforms and mobile apps that provide customers with exchange-type services. Last year, Chinese authorities banned trading in cryptocurrencies, but recently the country has been seeking out alternative cryptocurrency trading venues.

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Amazon Go May Be About More Than The Getting Of Groceries

PYMNTS

It’s been about a year in the making. But here we go with Amazon Go, newly out of beta this week and available to the public, in what the eCommerce juggernaut hopes will be a brick-and-mortar retail game changer. It seems the brick-and-mortar arena continues to entice online merchants, as the store opened its doors at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters. The shopping is done via mobile, by app specifically, and customers get to leave with what they’ve bought without having to wait to checkout.

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Holiday eCommerce Fraud Attempts Jumped In 2017

PYMNTS

Attempts to commit online fraud jumped during the holiday season, increasing 22 percent from Thanksgiving to December compared to a year ago. That’s according to new data from payments company ACI Worldwide , which found that along with the fraud increase, overall online transactions also jumped 19 percent from Thanksgiving to the end of 2017.

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Private Labels Gone Public

PYMNTS

Zalando is not a well-known website in the U.S. However, for European consumers, it’s a digital treasure chest for fashion and accessories at all levels. Among the things that separate Zalando from Amazon — the U.S.-based eCommerce giant to which the company is most often compared — is its luxury brands, like Givenchy and Proenza Schouler. Zalando has had much success in the upper and even middle-tiers of fashion: Fast-fashion brands like Zara and H&M were long holdouts.

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Outsourcing Vs. In-House: The Ultimate Battle For Better Collections

Speaker: Susan Richards

Your past-due accounts are growing, cash flow is tightening, and the pressure is on. The big question: Do you handle the collections internally or outsource to experts? Both strategies come with advantages and risks - but which one delivers the best impact for your business? In this session we’ll dive deep into the in-house vs. outsourcing debate, examining cost-effectiveness, efficiency, compliance risks, and overall recovery success rates.