Juneteenth, which falls on a Sunday this year, will be nationally observed on Monday, June 20. The financial markets are closed, along with all federal government offices, federal courts, banks, post offices, and most schools.
President Biden made Juneteenth a national holiday last year, the first new federal holiday designated since Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983. Juneteenth marks the end of slavery in the U.S. and celebrates the day when the last enslaved people in Texas learned they were free on June 19, 1865. Here’s what else should be on your radar this morning.
Payments Perk. Fast, flexible payments can help employers attract and retain talent. A recent PYMNTS study shows that 95% of workers surveyed are interested in working for a company offering early access to wages. In this month’s Expanding Payments Choice Playbook, PYMNTS looks at the increasing demand for improved payment options for workers and the competitive advantage for employers in offering payment flexibility. READ MORE
All Hands. Digital transformation still has a long way to go, scoring just 27 out of 100, according to PYMNTS’ ConnectedEconomy™ (CE) Index, a new benchmarking tool gauging the progress of digital transformation by the consumer behaviors in 11 countries. The report “Benchmarking The World’s Digital Transformation,” a PYMNTS and Stripe collaboration, found that to complete the digital transformation shift, all demographic groups are needed. READ MORE
A Dash of C. A dramatic trend toward consumerization is taking root in commercial transactions and in the coming months and years, B2B banking will be further supported by digitization just like B2C, AJ McCray, managing director and head of global corporate payments at Bank of America, told PYMNTS in an interview. He said application programming interfaces (APIs) and artificial intelligence (AI) will play major roles in consumerizing B2B payments. READ MORE
Great FinTech Refocus. The start of 2022 was rife with FinTech disasters “that we kind of all skated by,” i2c President Jim McCarthy told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster. As venture capital money dries up and overextended consumers and overfunded FinTechs are out in the open, there have been comparisons to the dot-com bubble burst of 2000 and the housing market crash of 2008. READ MORE
ICYMI. Amazon Prime Day on July 12 and 13 will see plenty of competition, with Target’s Deal Days, starting a day earlier, and other clone sales from BestBuy, Walmart, eBay, and others. Amazon Prime Day is so anxious to get started, it’s actually starting on June 21 with some early deals. Despite the promise of deep discounts, Amazon and others are facing consumers with over-stretched budgets. PYMNTS research has shown that households making up to $250,000 per year are reeling in spending and getting by paycheck-to-paycheck. READ MORE
