PYMNTS AM Radar: B2B Friction Reduction; NFT Cuteness Factor; Using Behavior to Prevent Fraud; ICYMI

It’s Thursday, May 19, and it’s an outlier day — only Devil’s Food Cake Day seems to have claimed it, and that’s not nearly enough. Nine years ago today Yahoo acquired the social blogging site Tumblr for $1.1 billion. WordPress picked it up for about $3 million two years ago. Here’s what should be on your radar this morning.

B2B Friction Reduction: Financial institutions (FIs) and corporations are seeking ways to bring their B2B payments processes up to date with the latest technology. PYMNTS’ report in collaboration with FIS, “Meeting The Challenge Of Payments Modernization: How Organizational Size Influences Innovation,” shows that only 37% of FIs said they had the in-house chops to handle B2B payment frictions. But that percentage changes by the size of the organization. READ MORE

NFT Cuteness Factor: Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the metaverse have become hot marketing tools for big retail brands. Jan-Lukas Wolf, senior director of commerce strategy for global payments provider Blackhawk Network, told PYMNTS the challenge is how to connect everyday consumers and brands in ways that deliver tangible benefits to both of them. And that goes beyond cute collectibles and the metaverse to find ways digital art and collectibles can enhance a physical product’s value. READ MORE

Using Behavior to Prevent Fraud: Consumer behavior analytics and users’ participation in identification verification processes can be a major factor in preventing and detecting eCommerce fraud, Schalk Nolte, CEO at authentication firm Entersekt, told PYMNTS. Entersekt taps behavioral analytics from Mastercard company NuData Security to increase eCommerce security in real time without disrupting the consumer experience. READ MORE

ICYMI: Anyone looking to move to New York City might have to settle for short-term rentals like Airbnbs, which now outnumber the number of available apartments. Some critics have expressed that the short-term rental model is designed to boost tourism over longer-term leases. READ MORE