July, 2019

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Monopoly Goes Cashless And Board Games Gain Popularity

PYMNTS

In this age of live multi-player online gaming, and virtual reality, and all things digital, it can be easy to think of board games as an artifact of the analog world. No doubt many households have a collection of board games in the closet or basement, but so many of them do nothing so much as collect dust, perhaps pulled out during the holidays after the presents are opened and the kids are getting fidgety.

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Why Transforming Your FP&A Matters

Jedox Finance

“Transformation!” is the clear message from Chief Financial Officers. To do that we must address the mindset of the entire FP&A team. Operating within your organization’s framework, as we discussed in the previous posts in this blog series , will frame how your FP&A team carries out this mandate. We asked several Financial Planning and Analysis professionals to share their perspectives on the mindset needed for success now and in the future.

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Book Review: Bond Pricing and Yield Curve Modeling

CFA Institute

Riccardo Rebonato combines theory with current empirical evidence to build a robust understanding of what drives the government bond market.

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i2c On Brex And ‘Fast Twitch’ Innovation

PYMNTS

The good old days of a two-year product development cycle are pretty much over. These days, no matter how creative, innovative and disruptive an idea a financial services player may have, the reality is they don’t have a lot of time to sit around developing it. “Speed to market is critical, more so today than it has ever been in history. In a couple of months, your great idea will have two or three competitors,” Joseph DeRosa, executive vice president of global sales at i2c , told PYMNTS in a re

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From Start to Scale: Driving Growth Through Seamless Payments Implementation

Speaker: Michael Veatch, Senior Director, Implementations & Ella Aguirre, Director of Solution Consulting

Embedding payments can be a transformative step for software companies looking to enhance their platform capabilities, boost customer satisfaction, and drive long-term growth. However, the success of payments hinges on a single thing: implementation. Drawing on real-world insights and experiences, payments implementation experts Michael Veatch and Ella Aguirre will explore actionable strategies that can lead to a transparent, friction-free launch and mitigate potential challenges like technical

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Why Blockchain Holds Promise For Cross-Border Payments

PYMNTS

The rise of the global economy and the demand for swift and secure cross-border payments is driving the development of more efficient infrastructures, and spurring financial institutions (FIs) to experiment with emerging tech. According to the new Smarter Payments Tracker , cross-border business-to-business (B2B) payments generated approximately $125 billion in revenue last year, a figure that continues to grow as the economy becomes more global.

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Lawmakers Push To Fast-Track Crypto Regulation

PYMNTS

Are new bitcoin rules coming? According to The Wall Street Journal , “the Internal Revenue Service is expected to update its 2014 guidance on cryptocurrencies in coming weeks, following an April request from a bipartisan group of 20 lawmakers. It is part of a broader push to boost the nascent cryptocurrency industry.” Not only that, but the newspaper said the U.S.

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Banks, Govs Show Continued Resistance To Facebook’s Libra

PYMNTS

Many traditional banking institutions and governments have shown skepticism, silence and resistance to Facebook’s proposed cryptocurrency Libra, according to reports. . Though the currency could potentially alter the financial landscape for good, many banks have simply not responded to the issue. “We’re still learning what it is and trying to work out where we stand on it — are we an opponent, partner or do we ignore?

Banking 81
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That Inexplicable In-N-Out Burger, And Marketing Stunt #Fails

PYMNTS

This week, the world was presented with a truly unusual retail mystery: The Case of the Inexplicable In-N-Out Burger. The story starts at 6:30 a.m. EST on July 20 in Jamaica, Queens, when Lincoln Boehm and his wife were heading to McDonald’s. By all accounts, it was a very normal trip, which included one extremely unusual feature: a single In-N-Out burger, wrapped and in photo-ready condition, lying in the middle of Sutphin Boulevard.

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The Future Of Compliance: Using Data Better

PYMNTS

In the pre-digital age of financial services, AML/KYC was a very slow process. The government would put out their lists of sanctioned entities – hostile governments, drug kingpins, organized crime organizations and affiliates, etc. – and compliance teams would manually check onboarding customers to make sure their records were clear. The system has always had its flaws, noted Alain Meier, CEO of Cognito – but in a pre-digital banking world where onboarding was a multi-day process, it wasn’t comp

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Less Stress, More Success: Accounting Best Practices & Processes for 2025

Speaker: Amanda Adams, Fractional CFO, CPA

Are you ready to elevate your accounting processes for 2025? 🚀 Join us for an exclusive webinar led by Amanda Adams, a seasoned fractional CFO and CPA passionate about transforming back-office operations for finance teams. This session will cover critical best practices and process improvements tailored specifically for accounting professionals.

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Apple Credit Card With Goldman Sachs On Track For August Release

PYMNTS

Despite some hiccups along the way with Goldman Sachs, the Apple credit card is on track for an August release, according to a report by Bloomberg. The collaboration between the two companies was sometimes tense and the stakes were high if it wasn’t successful. The Apple Card could be launched as early as the second half of August, which would meet its originally scheduled date for release when the card was announced in March.

Banking 80
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How Visa’s Using Blockchain Tech To Simplify X-Border Payments

PYMNTS

Global payments revenues are at an all-time high, and experts predict that they could even climb to be a $2 trillion industry by 2020. Cross-border payment revenues currently account for approximately $200 billion, a significant slice of the payments pie. Currently, there are 0.7 international transactions per capita every year, up from 0.5 in 2014.

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US Reps, Senators Present Faster Payments Legislation

PYMNTS

To reinforce the Federal Reserve’s authority to create a real-time payments system and mandate that the Fed brings about its own process, two U.S. representatives and two U.S. senators have introduced the Payment Modernization Act of 2019. The legislation was brought forward by Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Congressman Jesús “Chuy” García (D-IL), according to an announcement.

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Cannabis Law Reform Gains Momentum In Congress

PYMNTS

In a first-ever congressional hearing on marijuana law reform, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security convened July 10 to debate altering federal law around cannabis, CNBC reports. The consensus is that major cannabis reform is needed but disagreement still remains over what legislation should look like and the best strategy to advance it.

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Avoiding Lease Accounting Pitfalls in 2025: Lessons Learned from Spreadsheet Errors

Speaker: Abdi Ali, Sr. Lease Accounting Consultant

Join this insightful webinar with industry expert Abdi Ali, who will discuss the challenges that can arise from managing lease accounting with spreadsheets! He will share real-world examples of errors, compliance issues, and risks that may be present within your spreadsheets. Learn how these tools, while useful, can sometimes lead to inefficiencies that affect your time, resources, and peace of mind.

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Jack Ma’s Digital Bank Offers Three-Minute Loans To SMBs

PYMNTS

Jack Ma ’s MYbank is aiming to change the way China lends to small businesses. The 4-year-old bank uses real-time payments data and a risk-management system that analyzes more than 3,000 variables to allow borrowers to apply for a loan on a smartphone and receive cash almost instantly if approved. The whole process takes three minutes. So far MYbank has lent 2 trillion yuan ($290 billion) to nearly 16 million small companies, with a default rate of only about 1 percent.

Banking 79
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PayPal And Visa Launch Instant Transfer SMB Tool In Canada

PYMNTS

Payment bottlenecks cause problems for all types of consumers and companies, not the least of which are small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). But a new offering from PayPal and Visa could help ease those frustrations and hassles. The two payments firms announced on Tuesday (July 2) the launch of PayPal’s Instant Transfer in Canada for SMBs and individual consumers.

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As 5G Looms, Retail Possibilities Become More Clear

PYMNTS

Retailers surely have more than enough to worry about these days. For one, the pace of innovation keeps speeding up – and that holds true for all types of retail niches, from apparel to grocery to others. Closely tied to that is the increasing demand from consumers for all types of fuller, interconnected, omnichannel experiences – shopping and transactions that not only combine offline and online channels, but are frictionless while also being fun and even memorable.

Retail 77
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How Bitbuy Is Keeping Crime Out Of Crypto

PYMNTS

More than $1.2 billion is estimated to have been lost to cryptocurrency scams, thefts and fraud in the first quarter of 2019, and cybercriminals and scammers are not the only ones putting digital asset users at risk. Canadian exchange QuadrigaCX ’s former CEO, Gerald Cotten, allegedly embezzled approximately $195 million of clients’ money, for example, and his recent death left the company without the passwords required to access most of its customers’ holdings.

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Back to Basics with Reconciliations

Join us in this webinar, where we share best practices on how to think about the reconciliation work each month, when best to do reconciliations, how they should be prepared, and some common pitfalls to avoid. Learning Objectives: This course objective is to understand how to properly prepare and review balance sheet reconciliations and its impact on the financial statements.

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Vesicash Uses Escrow To Ignite eCommerce In Africa

PYMNTS

The common view about Africa – once found in recent PYMNTS coverage – is that the vast, varied and massively populated continent represents the next frontier for eCommerce. The middle-class and disposable incomes are growing in many African countries. Although consumers are still without formal access to traditional financial services, a growing number of them are closely tied to their mobiles phones, and all the commerce and payments opportunities offered by those devices.

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Visa Acquires Germany-Based Payworks

PYMNTS

Visa said early Wednesday (July 17) that it has acquired Payworks , a payment gateway based in Germany focused on the point of sale (POS). The company said in a release that Payworks will be integrated into CyberSource ’s portfolio of services offered to clients. In its release, the company said that Payworks’ cloud-based solution for in-store payments processing will be brought together with the CyberSource digital payment management platform, which will create, in Visa’s words, “a fully integ

Sales 77
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Japanese FinTech Rakuten Applying For US Banking Charter 

PYMNTS

A Japanese FinTech company is applying for a banking charter in the United States, according to a report by American Banker. The eCommerce firm Rakuten currently runs a shopper rewards program in the States, and said would file the necessary paperwork on Friday (July 26) with Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) and the state of Utah for an industrial loan company (ILC) charter.

Banking 77
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JPMorgan Signs On To Visa, Billtrust Business Payments Network

PYMNTS

Visa and Billtrust are announcing a major new user for their Business Payments Network (BPN) as of today (July 31). JPMorgan has announced it will use the service to streamline the delivery of electronic B2B payments for its commercial card clients. Launched jointly last November by Visa and Billtrust, the BPN is an open buyer/supplier payments platform created, according to Billtrust CEO Flint Lane, as a “better highway to drive their payments on.

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Usage-Based Monetization Musts: A Roadmap for Sustainable Revenue Growth

Speaker: David Warren and Kevin O’Neill Stoll

Transitioning to a usage-based business model offers powerful growth opportunities but comes with unique challenges. How do you validate strategies, reduce risks, and ensure alignment with customer value? Join us for a deep dive into designing effective pilots that test the waters and drive success in usage-based revenue. Discover how to develop a pilot that captures real customer feedback, aligns internal teams with usage metrics, and rethinks sales incentives to prioritize lasting customer eng

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Visa Ups Innovation Ante With US FinTech Fast Track Launch

PYMNTS

Even in 2019, there persists this idea in the mainstream that invention stems from the epiphany and late-night toil of the solitary scientist. The image stems from about two or three centuries ago, when medieval superstitions were being seriously challenged by empirical thought, and the view has been reinforced countless times — even into the early 21st century if you look hard enough — by books, movies, TV shows and other methods of cultural communication.

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Samsung, Tech And Banking Cos Team To Use Blockchain For Mobile Identity

PYMNTS

A group of companies in South Korea are collaborating on a blockchain network to be used for mobile authentication services, according to reports. . Samsung Electronics; banks KEB Hana Bank and Woori Bank ; telecom companies SK Telecom , LG Uplus and KT ; and Koscom , an IT service subsidiary from the Korea Exchange, are all part of the group. The companies want to let users protect their own data with the service, which will also allow people to save information from institutions as well as oth

Banking 76
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Autonomous Vehicles Run Into Serious Roadblocks

PYMNTS

Sometimes, when an idea – especially one that has long stewed in popular imagination – makes serious and well-funded moves toward becoming reality, the excitement becomes almost irresistible, and the idea takes on a sense of immediacy and inevitability. That’s been the case over the past year or so for self-driving cars. Sure, skepticism about the coming age of autonomous transportation was always out there.

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London FinTech Glint Pay Launches Gold-Backed Debit Card

PYMNTS

A company called Glint Pay has launched a debit card that’s backed by gold instead of currency, according to a report in The Denver Post. The company is London-based, and its U.S. office is in Boulder, Colorado. The card was released in the U.S. on Monday (July 29). Glint Pay was started by entrepreneur Jason Cozens. “We want gold to be considered like any other currency,” Cozens said.

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Solve Your Firm's Automation Complexities Once and For All

Speaker: Mark Stovel

When it comes to automating, many firms focus on finding the latest tech, believing that efficiency is something achieved through new tools. Yet true efficiency is achieved by delivering real value to clients, not merely by upgraded systems. Without a clear approach, no level of automation can overcome the complexities of serving every client’s needs.