B2B payments service provider AribaPay has big plans for expansion. After launching in the U.S. in 2014, AribaPay said Thursday (March 10) that it will now begin operations in Canada, with plans to expand into Europe and Latin America in the near future.
Since its inception, AribaPay says it has processed more than $40 billion in B2B payments. The company was created in an effort to automate and digitize corporate payments and billing.
In Canada, businesses and consumers exchange up to 4 million paper checks every day, AribaPay said, adding that buyers waste money on paper processes, while suppliers lack visibility into their accounts receivable operations.
“By automating billing and settlement and digitizing the ‘pay’ in procure-to-pay, AribaPay brings the same simplicity to B2B payments that consumers enjoy and effectively changes the game by enabling companies to drive a more efficient, effective process that creates benefits for all parties,” said AribaPay General Manager Phil Beck in a statement.
AribaPay rolled out in collaboration with Discover Network. When their collaboration was first revealed years ago, MPD CEO Karen Webster predicted the cross-border expansion of the solution and noted how Ariba could now capitalize on the transactions that pass through its network, while Discover can take advantage of the payment data to which it has access.
Since, AribaPay has added new partners. The company said earlier this year that it teamed up with First Data and its international payments infrastructure to help fuel transactions. The move was another hint that AribaPay would go global, as First Data joined SAP with connections in Europe and Latin America.
The company added that its solution will also be open for demonstration at the upcoming SAP Ariba Live conference later this month.
The number of job openings in the United States declined to 7.57 million in February, down from 7.76 million in January and 8.45 million in February 2024, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said Tuesday (April 1).
The BLS released the figures in a table as part of its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary (JOLTS).
In a press release, the agency characterized the month-over-month decline as “little changed” but noted that the year-over-year drop amounted to 877,000 fewer job openings.
The number of job openings in finance and insurance dropped by 80,000 compared to January, per the release. The number dropped by about 23%, from 350,000 in January to 270,000 in February, according to the table.
Across all industries, the decline in the number of available positions exceeded that expected by economists but signaled a labor market that is “only gradually cooling,” Bloomberg reported Tuesday.
Among economists surveyed by Bloomberg, the median estimate called for 7.66 million job openings, according to the report.
Job openings remained largely stabilized at a level around where they were before the pandemic, per the report.
Reuters attributed the decline in the number of job openings in February to employers’ uncertainty about the economy due to tariffs on imports.
Economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast 7.61 million job openings for the month, according to its Tuesday report.
The Conference Board reported March 25 that consumer confidence slipped for the fourth straight month in March. The Expectations Index, which measures consumers’ short-term outlook for income, business and labor market conditions, plunged to its lowest level in 12 years.
The University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers’ final results for March showed consumer sentiment falling for the third straight month, with consumers expressing worsening expectations for their personal finances, business conditions, unemployment and inflation.
The BLS said in its table that it gauged the number of hires in February at 5.4 million, which was little changed from the previous month but down from 5.7 million a year earlier. The number of total separations in February was 5.3 million, essentially unchanged from January but down from 5.5 million in February 2024.
The BLS characterized the numbers of quits, layoffs and discharges alike as little changed, per its press release.
