News

Payments Innovation
Why Visa Is Talking About a Working Capital Network
November 13, 2023

Alan Koenigsberg, senior vice president and global head of large, middle market, treasury and working capital solutions at Visa, took note of the rapid shifts in payments and finance during an interview with Karen Webster. “If you feel a bit breathless, I think the whole...

B2B Payments
Diversifying Supply Chains Drives Demand for B2B Payments Choice
November 13, 2023

In this environment of “higher for longer” interest rates, chief financial officers recognize the need to prioritize payments innovation. As Bank of America Head of Global Payments in Global Transaction Services AJ McCray told Karen Webster, to improve cross-border transactions, they need to prioritize payments...

Retail
Ulta Beauty Limits Free Sample To Boost Loyalty
November 13, 2023

Who doesn’t love a free sample?    Enthusiasm for freebies has made them a marketing tool long-loved by retailers and brands, but are they truly effective?  As a tool to get your product out to the masses, it’s an approach designed to cast a wide...

B2B Payments
Sezzle CEO Says Real-Time Business Payments Improve Velocity of Money and the Economy
November 13, 2023

The pain of using checks in B2B transactions is now starkly apparent. Sezzle CEO Charlie Youakim told Karen Webster that buyers and suppliers are actively looking to replace the paper check with digital conduits that get payments done more quickly — and in a cost-effective...

Banking
Fed: Banks Healthier Than in 2008 but Still Vulnerable
November 12, 2023

America’s banks are in a steadier place than they were in 2008. But according to a recent Federal Reserve report, that doesn’t mean they’re completely healthy. Writing on the Liberty Street Economics blog last week, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York noted that this year’s banking crisis...

B2B Payments
Alkami Offers Banking Clients Plaid API Access
November 12, 2023

Digital banking solutions provider Alkami is offering clients access to Plaid’s application programming interface (API). The new offering, announced Thursday (Nov. 9) lets Alkami’s financial institution (FI) clients benefit from the API from Plaid, whose data network that powers more than 8,000 financial services and apps. “This is a first-to-market...

Faster Payments
1 in 3 Hospitality Workers Willing to Pay for Instant Tips 
November 10, 2023

As restaurants and others in the hospitality space look for ways to boost retention, PYMNTS Intelligence reveals that instant tip payouts can go a long way — so much so, that many in the industry would even be willing to pay a fee to be...

Delivery
Instacart Leverages Scale to Buck Competition From Grocers’ Direct Platforms
November 10, 2023

As retailers and third-party players alike compete for consumers’ online grocery spending, Instacart maintains that its scale protects it from facing too much competition from even larger grocers’ in-house fulfillment efforts. As the grocery aggregator’s Chief Executive Officer Fidji Simo told analysts Wednesday (Nov. 8), on the...

Artificial Intelligence
This Week in AI: An AI App Store and GPTs Go Shopping
November 10, 2023

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) just keeps getting bigger. When you have a successful tech innovation, frequently, the next commercial step is to turn it into a platform.  Right now, the AI landscape is more of an ecosystem — but coming out of OpenAI’s Developer Day on...