Sat.Nov 14, 2020 - Fri.Nov 20, 2020

article thumbnail

Vintage Toys Aid In Happiness Recovery

PYMNTS

The word “nostalgia” entered the English language by way of ancient Greek. “Nostos” means “home” and “algos” means “pain.” It was invented to describe feeling homesick. Concepts like “homesickness” are taking on new meanings in 2020, as that chair, that table or that tiny crack in the wall are making us all slightly crazy after 10 months, and winter is setting in.

article thumbnail

The State of Planning in Dynamic Times

Jedox Finance

In this blog we take a closer look at the recently published BARC study “Sound Decisions in Dynamic Times.” What findings and insights can be derived for organizations and is it worthwhile to read it yourself? Let’s find out: Is your organization agile and resilient? In the current times of crisis, these buzzwords common in FP&A and planning turn out to be very important characteristics for companies and it becomes clear how well positioned they actually are.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Trending Sources

article thumbnail

Asian countries to see higher pay raises than other regions in 2021

Future CFO

Asian countries expect to see an average pay raise of 4.3% in 2021, compared with the average of 3.2% increase this year, said ECA International recently. Outside of Asia, the outlook is very different for many nations, including many which are expected to see decreases to real salaries. This includes major economies such as the United States and Saudi Arabia, the firm pointed out.

article thumbnail

Maybe Analyst Recommendations Do Add Value

CFA Institute

Following analyst buy or sell recommendations isn’t going to lead to outperformance. Or is it?

article thumbnail

Automation, Evolved: Your New Playbook For Smarter Knowledge Work

Speaker: Frank Taliano

Document-heavy workflows slow down productivity, bury institutional knowledge, and drain resources. But with the right AI implementation, these inefficiencies become opportunities for transformation. So how do you identify where to start and how to succeed? Learn how to develop a clear, practical roadmap for leveraging AI to streamline processes, automate knowledge work, and unlock real operational gains.

article thumbnail

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Invests In Chipper Cash In Latest African FinTech VC Deal

PYMNTS

African FinTech Chipper Cash has landed a whale of an investor. Chipper CEO Ham Serunjogi confirmed on Twitter the startup, which got its initial foothold in the market as a peer-to-peer (P2P) payments service, has just wrapped up a $30 million Series B round of venture capital. And among the investors was none other than multibillionaire Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, who participated through Bezos Expeditions, his personal venture capital fund.

More Trending

article thumbnail

Shopify Links Up With Alipay To Boost Merchants’ Cross-Border Sales

PYMNTS

Shopify has expanded its payment options for merchants with a new partnership with Alipay , China’s payments app. The deal will unlock “the power of cross-border commerce for Shopify’s merchants,” Shopify said in a press release that called Alipay “Asia's leading digital wallet platform.” The new payment option will ”allow Shopify merchants to seamlessly accept payments through Alipay from more than one billion annual active users in China alone — and, in the future, hundreds of millions more ac

Sales 130
article thumbnail

Mastercard Embraces Existing Rails To Drive B2B Payments Value

PYMNTS

When it comes to global B2B procurement, nothing is simple. For example, suppose a huge global consumer packaged goods (CPG) conglomerate wants to introduce a new shampoo. To do so it needs new supplies of palm oil, and a new supplier in Indonesia has the right quantity and the right environmental profile. Said CPG company would need to onboard the new supplier, which in the past could be a 90-day process full of you’re your customers (KYC) regulations and other laborious processes.

B2B 128
article thumbnail

Partners Against Crime: Visa Leads Effort To Fight Fraud With New Dynamic CVV Codes

PYMNTS

The rising trend of digitization in commerce and the increased occurrence of card-not-present fraud were not created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, it would be more accurate to note that those macro trend lines were both already on the move quite notably, and then the coronavirus came along and rapidly intensified the situation. That’s one of the takeaways from a recent PYMNTS panel discussion with Visa ’s Director of Global Chip Product Tom Rapkoch , Keyno CEO Robert Steinman and Assistant

article thumbnail

Wells Fargo Debuts Digital Supplier Payment Tool

PYMNTS

Wells Fargo is beefing up its digital payments arsenal with a new service aimed at business customers. The financial services giant on Thursday (Nov. 19) announced in a press release that it is adding a new solution to its WellsOne Virtual Commercial Card , enabling business customers to digitally pay invoices to suppliers and others. To use the tool, customers electronically send payment instructions, which are routed to the WellsOne Virtual Card Payments service, the release stated.

Invoicing 124
article thumbnail

Data Talks, CFOs Listen: Why Analytics Is The Key To Better Spend Management

Speaker: Claire Grosjean

Finance teams are drowning in data—but is it actually helping them spend smarter? Without the right approach, excess spending, inefficiencies, and missed opportunities continue to drain profitability. While analytics offers powerful insights, financial intelligence requires more than just numbers—it takes the right blend of automation, strategy, and human expertise.

article thumbnail

Bringing Order To Chaos: Open Banking Meets Healthcare Payments

PYMNTS

In the accelerated, digital-first world, few things are more complicated than healthcare payments. In fact, even a medical school degree isn’t enough to sort out the different payment accounts, billing statements and various insurance plans. However, chaos invites someone or something than can bring order, and i2c wants to contribute to that effort.

article thumbnail

US Consumers Pay Down $10B In Credit Card Debt In Q3

PYMNTS

Americans paid off $10 billion in credit card debt in the third quarter (Q3) of 2020, but borrowed more for car and housing loans, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) citing the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. This follows a record $76 billion drop in Q2 credit card debt, as people used COVID-19 stimulus money and pandemic unemployment to pay down financial obligations.

Numbers 124
article thumbnail

Credit Suisse, Bird Rides In Talks To IPO Via SPACs

PYMNTS

Scooter rental startup Bird is working on a deal with Credit Suisse Group to go public, according to a report from Bloomberg. The company, based in Santa Monica, California, has spoken with some special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) about acquisition deals, although none have reached any agreements, Bloomberg reported, and some SPACs have expressed inbound interest.

article thumbnail

Carrying Cash Could Become A Casualty Of COVID

PYMNTS

While its imminent death has been long forecast, cash just keeps on living to pay another day. Cash may not be king in the U.S. market anymore, but reports of its demise have often proved to be a bit premature. U.S. consumers’ cash use has declined over the last several years in terms of its share of the overall payments pie, but as consumers spend more, the pie gets bigger, and as people continue to use cash, cash usage continues to grow.

article thumbnail

What Your Financial Statements Are Telling You—And How to Listen!

Speaker: David Worrell, CFO, Author & Speaker

Your financial statements hold powerful insights—but are you truly paying attention? Many finance professionals focus on the income statement while overlooking key signals hidden in the balance sheet and cash flow statement. Understanding these numbers can unlock smarter decision-making, uncover risks, and drive long-term success. Join David Worrell, accomplished CFO, finance expert, and author, for an engaging, nontraditional take on reading financial statements.

article thumbnail

Can Low Credit Card Balances Save Holiday Spending? Don’t Bet On It

PYMNTS

Here’s the scenario. Consumers have cut back on travel, in-person entertainment and restaurant spend. They have paid down their credit cards. Then they will use this newfound spending power to bring a new, vengeful spending strategy to the holiday season because, after all, the American consumer deserves a few gifts after all that they’ve been through this year.

article thumbnail

Bank’s Margins Suffer As US Consumers Pay Down Credit Card Debt

PYMNTS

U.S. consumers have been paying down payments on credit cards with the pandemic continuing to hamper spending opportunities, which has led to dramatically falling bank card loans, The Financial Times (FT) reports. According to the report, the total amount of card loans in U.S. banks was $755 billion, down $100 billion from before the pandemic, while balances have drifted lower in three of the last four weeks.

article thumbnail

Bitcoin Daily: Citibank Analyst Says Bitcoin Will Hit $318K; Pakistan SEC Exploring Digital Asset Regulation; Binance Discontinues BGBP Stablecoin

PYMNTS

A Citibank senior analyst predicted that bitcoin could reach $318,000 by December 2021 in a report written for Citibank’s institutional clients, according to CoinDesk. Thomas Fitzpatrick’s report was leaked on Twitter Friday (Nov. 13) by user “ClassicMacro,” who noted in a tweet , “there is no edge in guessing targets so far in time with TA. All we know is that price is likely to continue going up.”.

article thumbnail

Banks Reinforce Protections As Cybercriminals’ Tactics Evolve

PYMNTS

Banks have long worked to anticipate and protect against emerging tactics of cybercriminals. Now, with the pandemic accelerating a move toward digital product acquisition, communication, purchases and money movement, financial institutions (FIs) and their clients need to be even more vigilant. Leslie Ragan manages transaction fraud prevention for Elan Financial Services , a unit of U.S.

Banking 118
article thumbnail

Forecasting Failures Are Costly: Heres How To Fix Them

Speaker: Dave Sackett

Traditional budgeting and forecasting methods can no longer keep pace with today’s rapidly evolving business environment. Static budgets, rigid annual forecasts, and outdated financial models limit an organization’s ability to adapt to market shifts and economic uncertainty. To stay ahead, finance leaders must leverage a future-forward approach—one that leverages real-time data, predictive analytics, and continuous planning to drive smarter financial decisions.

article thumbnail

How Alternative Lending Technology Stays Flexible For SMBs

PYMNTS

In the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, and banks' subsequent pullback from the small- to medium-sized business ( SMB ) lending arena, a slew of alternative lenders emerged onto the scene to fill the credit gap. Over the years, that surge in competition gave way to a more collaborative spirit between traditional financial institutions (FIs) and FinTechs as both sides worked to digitize and modernize SMB financing.

article thumbnail

Citi Partners With Mastercard For Google Pay Plex Accounts

PYMNTS

Citi and Mastercard are teaming up as network partners for the digital checking and savings account Citi Plex on Google Pay, available for both Android and iOS. . Alpesh Chokshi, head of business development, Citi Global Consumer Bank, said in a statement on Wednesday (Nov. 18) that today’s consumers seek money management that is like their own lives — a fast-moving “integrated experience.”.

article thumbnail

SellerX Raises $118M In Bid To Buy Up Amazon Sellers

PYMNTS

Venture capital cash has been flowing this year to companies that plan to buy up sellers on Amazon and help them grow. In particular, such deals have targeted companies in the Fulfillment by Amazon program, in which the eCommerce giant warehouses a company’s products and then takes care of packing, shipping and providing customer service. The latest such deal has Berlin-based SellerX landing 100 million euros ($118 million) of financing, reported Tech.eu.

Valuation 112
article thumbnail

PayPal Teams With Gap, DoorDash For Payments, Checkout Solutions

PYMNTS

New entries to PayPal 's enterprise merchant roster include delivery company DoorDash and clothing retailer Gap Inc. , which will now allow customers to use PayPal at checkout, according to a press release. According to the release, PayPal's strategy is working " to create a seamless and simple checkout experience for consumers online by offering customers the flexibility and power to choose how to pay.".

Retail 109
article thumbnail

Are Robots Replacing You? Keeping Humans in the Loop in Automated Environments

Speaker: Erroll Amacker

As businesses increasingly adopt automation, finance leaders must navigate the delicate balance between technology and human expertise. This webinar explores the critical role of human oversight in accounts payable (AP) automation and how a people-centric approach can drive better financial performance. Join us for an insightful discussion on how integrating human expertise into automated workflows enhances decision-making, reduces fraud risks, strengthens vendor relationships, and accelerates R

article thumbnail

Payments Startup Veem Introduces New Tool For Easy B2B Payments 

PYMNTS

Global payments startup Veem is launching a new business-to-business (B2B) tool to simplify and automate domestic payments, the company announced in a Wednesday (Nov. 18) press release. “Small business owners, financial controllers, and accountants are moving away from paper-based payments and manual processes as the pandemic increases the demand for online payment solutions,” Veem Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Marwan Forzley said in the announcement. .

B2B 109
article thumbnail

Worldpay: Pandemic Has Forced The Issue On B2B Automation

PYMNTS

Compared to their direct-to-consumer (D2C) counterparts, the heavy-lifting, hardworking B2B businesses of the world have always been chided for being a few clicks behind when it comes to embracing and investing in payments technology. And while that will probably remain the case for the foreseeable future, Maria Prados , vice president of global eCommerce at Worldpay , tells PYMNTS that the shift to automated, paperless and secure B2B transactions is on the move.

B2B 108
article thumbnail

COVID Crisis: What Happens If Most People Don’t Get The Vaccine?

PYMNTS

On the same day that COVID-19 cases in the U.S. topped 10 million and hit 50.5 million globally, the world got news that Pfizer and BioNTech had successfully completed Phase 3 trials of a COVID-19 vaccine on 43,000 people — and achieved an astounding 90 percent effectiveness rate. It was a day that medical scientists and epidemiologists had been awaiting for eight long months, marking a significant scientific breakthrough for the virus that hobbled the world.

article thumbnail

COVID-19 Pivot: Boston Restaurateur Turns Idle Space Into Cozy Money Maker

PYMNTS

Like restaurant owners and operators everywhere, restaurateur Chris Campbell of Boston’s Troquet on South has found the past eight months to be full of challenges. He’s increased take-out, retooled delivery and altered his dining room’s seating and layout as a way to adapt to the pandemic’s new requirements. But after watching his private function room sit idle for six months, Campbell figured he had to try something different.

article thumbnail

Book of Secrets on the Month-End Close

Based off SkyStem's popular e-Book, the book of secrets to the month-end close will be revealed in this one-hour webinar. Learn leading practices when it comes to building a strong and sustainable month-end close that has room to grow and evolve. Learn about the power of precise estimates, why reconciliations are critical to closing the books, how and when to automate, and how the chart of accounts play into your close process.