August, 2016

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The Netherlands’ Small (But Mighty) FinTech Scene

PYMNTS

In this week’s edition of PYMNTS’ Weekly Tech Center Roundup , we check out a small country with a huge potential to emerge as one of Europe’s premier FinTech spaces. Before we jump into the post, here are a few quick facts about the Netherlands and its tech scene: . The Netherlands is estimated to have a population of 17 million. The country’s GDP was approximately $880 billion in 2014.

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The Expensive Benefit Plan Penalties You'll Want to Avoid

Boston Startup CFO

2016 has been a whirlwind year for employer legislation and compliance, and things aren’t slowing down. In July, the Department of Labor (DOL) finalized a list of increased penalty amounts for violations related to employee benefits and pay -- some of which haven’t been updated since 1997. With so many updated penalties, regulatory agencies including the DOL and IRS are bound to pay closer attention to compliance, and employers need to be ready.

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U.S. Postal Service Rolls Out New App To Protect Mail Carriers From Dogs

PYMNTS

With the rise of Amazon Prime and eCommerce , more packages are being delivered to customers’ homes than ever before. It’s now possible to order everything online for in-home delivery from groceries to pet food to toilet paper, and consumers can usually get those items delivered to their doorstep overnight or in a manner of hours. The U.S. Postal Service delivered 4.5 billion packages in 2015, a big jump from the 3.3 billion in packages it delivered to customers in 2011, and now accounts for abo

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The Three-Step Plan To Optimizing Mobile Revenue

PYMNTS

There’s no question that mobile has established itself as a default channel as far as the average consumer is concerned, and the growing cottage industry of turnkey software-as-a-service startups proves that getting on mobile is as ironclad a requirement as it gets in commerce. But starting up a mobile operation is just one half of a potentially profitable coin.

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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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Pixlee Lets Retailers Market Using Real Customers’ Photos

PYMNTS

Selfies or vacation photos are apparently a big business. Seriously. Pixlee , a San Francisco-based startup, allows retailers or brands to market directly to customers by using their own photos through curating them from social media or having the customer directly submit them for use, which the company says leads to a more authentic and engaging shopping experience for consumers.

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Full-Service Payments And Keeping Your Friends Close

PYMNTS

There was a time when it seemed that ubiquity would become the focal point of full-service and mobile payments systems. Experts believed that universally accepted mobile wallets from trusted companies like Apple or Samsung would dominate the new wave of payments. That belief was perhaps misguided, according to Stephen Goodrich, president and CEO of ZipLine, the company that built the loyalty and mobile payments app known as SmartPay for popular convenience and gas chain Cumberland Farms.

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IoT, Big Data And The Tech Fueling Better B2B eCommerce

PYMNTS

The worldwide eCommerce industry is headed towards a $781 billion valuation by 2024. That figure, released earlier this month by Transparency Market Research, is driven by the increasing adoption of international eCommerce capabilities by sellers. In its analysis, Transparency Market Research said this growth will bring new business to a host of service providers. “The whole pie is expanding in every direction, and there may be enough to serve everyone, from the traditional logistics giant

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Popular Becomes Second To Launch Credit Cards For Use In Cuba

PYMNTS

Popular announced on Tuesday (Aug. 23) that it has become the second financial institution in the U.S. and the first in Puerto Rico to offer its credit cards for use in Cuba. In a press release , Popular said the Mastercard credit cards of its two banking subsidiaries, Banco Popular de Puerto Rico and Popular Community Bank, can be used at any of Cuba’s authorized merchants and ATMs throughout the country.

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Visa Announces First Quick Chip Deployment

PYMNTS

Despite the fraud benefits that EMV has provided to retailers with terminals on their countertops, there has been one consistent refrain from retailers and their customers alike: It takes too long. Too long for terminals to be tested and certified and too long for consumers to insert their card and wait for the transaction to be approved. Help has arrived.

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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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Back-To-School Spending Goes Big — And Omni

PYMNTS

With advancements in technology, parents are doing their homework online before making purchases online and in-store. The Vantiv Back-to-School Report — Special Edition takes a look at the latest back-to-school shopping trends and includes hot-off-the-presses insights from Google. Twenty years ago, taking a trip to the mall or retail store for some good old-fashioned back-to-school shopping was the norm when it came to getting new outfits and supplies.

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How Mobile Apps Are Changing The Face Of Brick-And-Mortar Retail

PYMNTS

It might seem like a weird contradiction, but mobile shopping apps are changing the way that customers engage with and shop at traditional brick-and-mortar retailers. “Most shoppers are now armed with a mobile device when they enter a retail store,” according to a study on mobile apps by MicroStrategy , a global analytics company. “They are highly informed and expect the retail employees they interact with to be at least (if not more) knowledgeable about a store’s products, promotions and servic

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Millennials Are Shunning Credit Cards

PYMNTS

Millennials may know something that their older counterparts haven’t figured out yet: Cash is better than credit cards. That’s according to data from the Federal Reserve that shows that the number of people under the age of 35 in the U.S. that own a credit card has dipped to the lowest point since 1989, when the Federal Reserve started collecting data on credit card ownership.

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Record Year So Far For Robots In Manufacturing

PYMNTS

There were more robots ordered for manufacturing and business purposes in the first half of 2016 than at any point ever before, according to the Association for Advancing Automation (A3). A3 says the rise in automated manufacturing “promises increased efficiencies in production and the ability to compete globally.”. In total, 14,583 robots, at a value of $817 million, were ordered by North American companies during the first half of 2016, according to A3, which is a record and a 2 percent growth

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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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Visa’s Plan To Make $10 Trillion Real Time

PYMNTS

Ninety percent of the $10 trillion “push” payments market opportunity is concentrated in a variety of disbursements made between businesses and consumers that today rely on cash, checks and ACH to move money between those parties. Insurance payments, healthcare reimbursement, merchant settlements, loan disbursements, and payments to workers participating in the shared economy represent a $9 trillion opportunity filled with friction for both the sender and the receiver, with the remaining $1 tril

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How The Internet Of Things Is Already Influencing The Retail Industry

PYMNTS

The term “ Internet of Things ” has become a big buzzword in business lately, but what exactly is it and why might it shape the future of the retail industry? Simply put, think of the Internet of Things as an “interconnected ecosystem of internet-enabled objects,” according to eMarketer. So, things like your mobile device and tablet are part of the Internet of Things.

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Austin Is Bringing The FinTech Heat

PYMNTS

You know what they say, everything is bigger in Texas. That couldn’t ring truer for the state’s capital, which many consider to have a tech scene bursting with potential and growth. Though Austin may fall in the shadows of bigger U.S. tech hubs, like Silicon Valley and New York City, the city has been recognized as having a fast-growing tech sector with strong expansion.

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Alexa Can Now Find Your Lost Phone

PYMNTS

Sure, there are a variety of things Alexa can do — such as order groceries, make playlists and tell jokes — but the usefulness of those things is rather subjective. Lost phone on the other hand? That’s something that affects approximately 99 percent of humans at some point and makes everyone everywhere hostile. It is also something Alexa can now fix for you.

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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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Vacation Rental Home Startup Vacasa Isn’t Just An Airbnb Knockoff

PYMNTS

At first glance, the business model behind Vacasa , the vacation rental home startup, sounds very similar to the one behind Airbnb. But Cofounder and CEO Eric Breon says that the two online rental startups are actually vastly different from one another. First, according to Breon, Vacasa tends to operate in smaller towns and more affluent communities, where people have vacation or second homes, as opposed to larger cities and urban centers, where Airbnb typically dominates the market.

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Why Canada Is Blockchain’s Biggest Hot Spot

PYMNTS

Banks across the globe have invested resources into exploring blockchain technology, and that includes in Canada. But this year, the nation thrust itself into the center of the movement that looks to turn blockchain theory into reality when, in July, Canadian bank ATB Financial successfully sent money to a German bank via blockchain technology — in just 20 seconds.

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Uber Of X: GoShare, The Uber Of Trucks

PYMNTS

That “M” word – Moving. It’s something that people do a lot of. The packing. The lifting. The schlepping. The loading and unloading. The unpacking. Moving is one of the worst, most frustrating activities known to man, woman and child. Unless, you can, of course, get someone else to do it for you. That someone else – or at least one of those “someone elses” is Shaun Savage, who launched GoShare in May 2015.

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New Chip Card Security Flaw Found

PYMNTS

A new flaw has turned up in the chip-based cards on offer in the U.S. According to new data released by researchers at NCR, credit card thieves can apparently rewrite the mag stripe such that the card looks to be chipless when run through a card reader machine – even though such machines should kick back the swipe and tell the user to insert the chip.

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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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Azimo Customers Can Transfer Money Via Facebook Messenger

PYMNTS

Transferring money digitally just got even easier for Facebook users, now that digital money transfer firm Azimo announced it is integrated into Facebook Messenger. That means users can send and receive money through their friends list on Facebook. “With 1 billion people now using Facebook Messenger, we saw an opportunity to make our customers’ lives easier and change money transfer forever.

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From IoT to IoP: The Internet Of Pet (Food)

PYMNTS

Pet owners, rejoice! Soon, you may own a pet food bowl — integrated with Internet of Things (IoT) technology and Amazon ’s Dash Replenishment Service (DRS) — that will automatically reorder dog or cat food. Pet owners may not have to worry about running out of pet food ever again. So says Obe , a San Francisco-based startup, whose ProBowl, a new IoT-enabled device, can track supplies and reorder food.

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In Wake Of Oracle Hack, Five More Companies Hacked

PYMNTS

First, it was Oracle Corp. and its MICROS customers that were getting hacked, and now, it appears more cash register vendors are falling victim to hacks that were allegedly conducted by the same Russian organized cybercrime group. That’s according to Forbes , which said it was informed by five cash register providers of the breach. According to the report, in the last month, Cin7, ECRS, Navy Zebra, PAR Technology and Uniwell were all hacked.

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Are Millennials Better Off As Non-Home Buyers?

PYMNTS

Millennials are buying fewer houses than their Baby-Boomer counterparts – that is inarguable by the data. Across age groups, the U.S. homeownership rate has fallen to a 50 year low – 62.9 percent – and that dip is mostly powered by millennial homebuyers who aren’t buying. Among those under the age of 35, home ownership rates are just over 1/3 – and about half the national figures.

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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.