December, 2019

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Nigeria Turns To FinTechs To Boost Financial Inclusion

PYMNTS

In an effort to expand access to financial institutions (FIs), the Central Bank of Nigeria is planning to license more payment providers, Bloomberg reported on Saturday (Nov. 30). . The goal is to improve Nigeria’s financial inclusion rate by 20 percent, bringing it to 80 percent by the end of 2020. “The provision of licenses to several players will help support innovation and competition as all parties work to increase their customer base,” Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Godwin Emefiele said

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Automakers Worry That Qualcomm Appeal Could Boost Cost Of 5G Cars

PYMNTS

If microchip supplier Qualcomm wins its case on appeal, the cost of connected cars using 5G technology will skyrocket, automakers and suppliers said in court filings on Friday (Nov. 29), Reuters reported. Judge Lucy Koh ruled in May that Qualcomm, the world’s largest supplier of mobile phone chips, is a monopoly and has to change the way it does business.

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PayPal Closes On GoPay Acquisition, Enters China

PYMNTS

For PayPal, eyeing growth and eyeing new markets, the gaze is, at least in part, turned eastward. News came Thursday (Dec. 19) that the company has closed its deal to buy a majority equity stake in China’s GoPay (the formal, official name of the company is Guofubao Information Technology Co. Ltd.). The deal had originally been announced at the end of September.

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Doing Battle With Holiday Fraudsters At The ATM

PYMNTS

The holiday season is in full swing. That means opening up wallets and purses at the point of sale, which often means paying with cash … and cash? Well, that means trips to the ATM. For fraudsters, armed with new technologies, the ATM is fertile ground for fraud. In an interview with PYMNTS, David Phister, director of systems security product management at Diebold Nixdorf , said that when it comes to combatting fraud, “holiday seasons are always tough.

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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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How Recurring Payments Support Customer Services

PYMNTS

Satisfied customers are key to any company’s success. Those experiencing issues like declined payments or damaged products will want to share their frustrations with merchants, but direct communication grows more challenging when digital screens separate businesses and their customers. . The right customer support services can connect these two parties to more effectively work through difficulties.

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Central Bank Of Bahamas To Introduce Digital Currency

PYMNTS

The Central Bank of the Bahamas is planning to start a rollout of its new digital currency on Friday (Dec. 27) in Exuma. Called Project Sand Dollar, the name of the currency will also be the sand dollar, according to a press release. The move is long-awaited and comes after years of work through the Bahamian Payments System Modernization Initiative (PSMI), which began in the early 2000s.

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How B2B Payments Balances Compliance With A Better User Experience

PYMNTS

With the U.K. one of the largest FinTech hubs of the world today, initiatives like Open Banking demonstrate the opportunity for regulatory mandates to encourage innovation and competition — even in markets where such regulatory mandates don’t exist. The capabilities to unlock bank data and integrate new services into emerging FinTech platforms via API integrations is a FinTech trend that hasn’t ignored the B2B payments arena.

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Mastercard On Overcoming AI’s Bias Problem

PYMNTS

Savor this moment — these coming weeks, the next few months, the year or two that will follow. These are the last moments before artificial intelligence (AI) really starts to have a massive impact on one’s daily life, before the world really turns to AI. That is not meant to be mournful, or an expression of grief for a way of life — a non-AI way of life — that is on its way out.

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Gusto Cites Security Concerns In Zenefits API Dispute

PYMNTS

Small business accountants have said they are now forced to manually transfer data between payroll and human resources solution providers Gusto and Zenefits after the two companies abruptly ended their application programming interface (API) integration, AccountingToday reported. While a spokesperson for Zenefits told the publication that “Zenefits still has an integration with Gusto for payroll,” reports noted that the integration does not support the ability for small business acco

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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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Chinese Finance Group Calls For AI Regulation In Ecosystem

PYMNTS

Policy advisers at a leading think tank said that China should introduce a regulatory framework for artificial intelligence in the finance sector, according to a report from Reuters on Sunday (Dec 22). The same framework should be in place to improve technology used by regulators in efforts to strengthen supervision throughout the industry, the think tank also says.

Finance 81
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Home Depot Connects Opioid Addiction To Thievery Uptick

PYMNTS

Executives at Home Depot said opioid addiction in the U.S. might be part of the reason for a recent escalation of thefts in its stores, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday (Dec. 11). . An organized band of thieves are swiping merchandise totaling millions and stowing the goods in warehouses, the company said. The thefts — which retailers call shrink — will result in lower operating profit margins in 2020, Home Depot executives told analysts and investors during a meeting.

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Deutsche Money Laundering Probe Accelerated

PYMNTS

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has accelerated its probe into Deutsche Bank’s participation in a $220 billion Danske Bank money laundering scheme, Reuters reported on Monday (Dec. 2), citing four sources. The DoJ is inquiring if Germany’s largest bank Deutsche assisted with moving dirty money to the U.S. from Denmark’s largest lender Danske , one source told Reuters.

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Samsung To Launch ‘Artificial Human’ Called Neon

PYMNTS

Samsung disclosed that it will introduce an “artificial human” called Neon at CES 2020 on Jan. 7 that is totally different than its artificial intelligence (AI) assistant Bixby, Digital Trends reported. The limited information about Neon was shared on Samsung’s Twitter account, and includes an “Artificial Human” teaser in several languages with the tagline “Have you met an ‘artificial’?”.

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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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Self-Driving Truck Hauls 40K Pounds Of Butter Across US

PYMNTS

Silicon Valley startup Plus.ai is thought to be the first company to deploy a self-driving commercial truck to haul 40,000 pounds of butter roughly 42 hours cross-country from Tulare, California to Quakertown, Pennsylvania, ZDNet reported. The company’s Level 4 autonomous semi-tractor-trailer completed the 2,800-mile run for Land O’Lakes in under three days.

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Super Saturday Pulls In Record-Breaking $34.4B In Retail Sales

PYMNTS

Exceeding forecasts , Dec. 21, the last Saturday shopping day before Christmas 2019, has been confirmed as the single biggest retail sales day in U.S. History. According to retail research firm Customer Growth Partners, consumers on Super Saturday spent a total of $34.4 billion and that exceeded 2019 Black Friday sales by 10 percent. “Paced by the ‘Big Four’ mega-retailers — Walmart, Amazon, Costco and Target — Super Saturday was boosted by the best traffic our team has seen in years,” Craig Jo

Sales 74
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Trucking Payments Tools That Are In It For The Long Haul

PYMNTS

The growing significance of the gig economy is changing how businesses handle their payments. Corporations recognize that paying freelancers for ad hoc projects is a different ball game than issuing regular payroll disbursements to hourly or salaried employees or contracting with large suppliers. Gig workers frequently want compensation that is delivered rapidly — not at the end of a two-week pay period — and more than a third of financially struggling gig workers would switch platforms to get p

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How Faster Payments And Faster Data Drive Payroll Innovation

PYMNTS

Shifting employee landscapes, changes in workers’ demands over how and when they get paid, and technological innovation have combined to open the floodgates for payroll FinTech. However, a rise in new service providers has added opportunity for industry consolidation, with payroll companies finding acquisitions a strategic way to augment their offerings, and keep pace with evolving needs among businesses and their employees.

B2B 74
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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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Revolution Payments Expands Service To Lower Biz Card Fees

PYMNTS

The interchange fees associated with commercial card acceptance are the latest target of commercial card optimization company Revolution Payments, which announced a new service designed to further reduce that burden on business-to-business (B2B) suppliers. In a press release Wednesday (Dec. 11), Revolution Payments announced its interchange optimization service to help B2B companies reduce interchange fees by optimizing Level 3 data processing.

B2B 73
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Bitcoin Daily: Bank Of Russia Would Back Crypto Ban; Fidelity Develops Digital Token As Employee Incentive

PYMNTS

The Bank of Russia has voiced its support for a ban on cryptocurrency payments, saying that “private cryptocurrencies cannot be equated with fiat money and cannot be legal tender.”. “If it is decided to ban cryptocurrencies as a means of payment at the legislative level, we consider it appropriate to support this position,” the banking authority said , adding that “we continue to believe that cryptocurrencies carry significant risks, including in the field of laundering of proceeds from crime an

Banking 73
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RTP: Achieving Ubiquity Without A Mandate

PYMNTS

Though the U.S. continues to take significant steps toward a faster payments ecosystem , the market undoubtedly lags behind others across the world in the path toward real-time payments ubiquity. There are a variety of reasons why this is the case, which stem beyond one of the most common explanations — that the U.S., unlike markets like the U.K. and Europe, lacks the same government push for change, and in some cases, mandatory changes.

B2B 72
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Visa Direct To Power TransferWise Real-Time Global P2P

PYMNTS

Visa has added a new partner in its quest to simplify, digitize and drive costs down in the global remittances space with its real-time push payments platform Visa Direct. Visa Direct has been used to process 2 billion transactions in 2019, a number it is looking to grow in 2020. Visa Direct was designed to make sending money “as easy as sending a text message,” as opposed to the status quo consumers and small businesses are stuck with around the world: manual, paper-based processes, high fees

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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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Visa Partners With TD To Power US, Canada Money Transfers 

PYMNTS

Visa is teaming up with TD Bank to introduce a new solution to ease money transfers between Canadian and U.S. accounts, Visa announced Monday (Dec. 23). . Powered by Visa Direct, the latest solution — TD Bank (US) to TD (Canada) Transfer — enables real-time transfers for Canadian users to move money from their U.S. TD Bank accounts quickly and easily. .

Banking 72
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QuickBooks Releases Expanded Payroll Services Suite

PYMNTS

The company behind QuickBooks , Intuit , announced it is releasing an expanded suite of online payroll offerings to help small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) automate payroll and tax filing, according to a press release. The suite has built-in tax penalty protection and helps with access to services like human resources (HR), benefits and compensation for injured workers.

B2B 71
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Deep Dive: Serving Up Better Customer Service With Enhanced CRM

PYMNTS

Almost everyone has experienced a quick food run that turned into a 45-minute ordeal, but such delays are bad news for both quick-service restaurants (QSRs) and patrons. Long drive-through lines can overwhelm employees and frustrate customers, occasionally irritating the latter enough that they leave without making purchases. It is no wonder that so many big-name QSRs are turning to the latest digital technologies to tackle this problem. .

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Hackers Access Unsecured Facebook Database With 267M Users’ Info 

PYMNTS

Security researcher Bob Diachenko and Comparitech discovered that a Facebook database with 267 million user IDs, phone numbers and names was left unsecured and accessed by hackers, who uploaded it to a downloadable format, according to a report. . Diachenko said he thinks the breach is because of an illegal bot scraping operation or even criminals who figured out how to abuse Facebook’s API.

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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.