It’s the end of the workweek, and the PYMNTS Weekender is here to make sure you didn’t miss anything with the latest in payments and commerce news. We have deep dives into healthcare payments artificial intelligence (AI), subscription churn, and a TurboTax tool for stimulus payments.
Top News
TurboTax Rolls Out Free Tool For Faster Stimulus Payments
TurboTax, the online tax preparation service, has said it is launching a free stimulus registration system to help people who don’t need to file a tax return. Approximately 10 million people in the country don’t have to file taxes, and roughly 80 percent can receive a stimulus check.
Amazon Pulls Plug On Its Shipping Service
Amazon is halting its shipping service as it needs the workers for more pressing matters. Amazon Shipping, which is a competitor to FedEx and UPS, launched in beta in Los Angeles and London. With staff shortages caused by the pandemic, however, the eCommerce firm is pausing the offering.
Wells Fargo To Cap SMB Bailout Loans at $10 Billion
Wells Fargo said it would disperse $10 billion to nonprofits and companies with under 50 employees as part of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The financial institution has received much interest in PPP loans as of the program’s opening day on April 3.
BoA Receives $6B In SMB Loan Requests Within Hours
Banks were supposed to start taking in PPP applications on April 3, but only JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America (BoA) had the ability to roll out per a report on April 5. More than 85,000 people sought $22.2 billion in loans at BoA per news at the time.
COVID-19 Stimulus Money Could Show Up In Consumer Bank Accounts Today
Americans could have started getting coronavirus stimulus funds from the federal government as early as Thursday (April 9) or Friday per a past report. The first round of help was forecast to reach those who had provided the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with direct deposit information in the past.
SBA Computer System Crash Further Tangles PPP Loan Process
The PPP was encountering further setbacks as the Small Business Administration worked to take care of computer system challenges. The PPP is a $350 billion small business loan program. And loans will be forgiven if companies keep paying their workforce.
Arvind Krishna Takes Over As IBM CEO
Arvind Krishna has taken the lead of chief executive of IBM. Krishna pointed out in a message to staffers that he will focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and hybrid cloud as critical solutions for future times.
Nationwide Says Business Banking Plans No Longer Viable
Nationwide Building Society, the U.K. lender, has curtailed its plan to start a business banking venture, noting that COVID-19 made the field not viable at the present time. The lender had noted in a statement that the coronavirus had “changed the medium-term interest rate landscape.”
Visa Foundation Pledges $210M For COVID-19-Stricken Businesses
The Visa Foundation said it was pledging $210 million to back two efforts that will assist micro and small enterprises that have faced financial interruptions because of the coronavirus pandemic. Funds will provide investment partners and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that help small and micro-businesses with capital.
How Visa And The US Secret Service Are Flattening The COVID-19 Fraud Curve
Fraudsters find themselves in unusual times as people are online working and shopping from home because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
U.S. Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Thomas C. Edwards said “This is a once-in-a-lifetime target-rich environment for fraudsters.” Edwards talked with Karen Webster and Visa’s Vice President of North America Risk Lori Hodges.
The best cure to keep the criminals at bay is inoculation by education, Hodges and Edwards agreed, as the best way to guard the weakest link is to bolster it significantly.
Trackers and Reports
Bringing AI To The Fight Against Healthcare Payments Fraud
The COVID-19 pandemic presents a challenge to healthcare systems that hasn’t been seen before that could, in all likelihood, last into the future for months or years to come. How is AI and other computational systems used to manage essential business functions?
NEW DATA: 10 Things That Can Curb Subscription Commerce Churn
The coronavirus pandemic is advancing and bringing about a large economic downturn and causing consumers to reduce their spending wherever they can — and subscription plans are now on the chopping block. How can providers retain their subscribers even with changing financial priorities?
How Firms Can Speed Past The $150B Toll Of Legacy AP And AR Processes
The accounts payable (AP) process, to a large extent, remains stuck in a predigital time and is governed by checks as well as paper-based invoices. What are some of the costs that outmoded invoicing processes put on companies, and what is a patch to more efficient payments?
Trōv: Why Insurers Still Cling To The Paper Check
Many insurers have yet to integrate mobile disbursement support even with increasing interest among consumers. Insurers still have a few friction points to face before they will be completely ready and able to adopt mobile disbursements per Michele Schmitt, senior product manager for insurance technology provider Trōv in a recent interview with PYMNTS.
Banking APIs Give Businesses An eCommerce Push
Banks can provide application programming interfaces (APIs) to support the eCommerce transitions and expansions of clients.
Financial institutions (FIs), in one case, are offering APIs that their clients can use to underpin payment and settlement functions per Abdul Raof Latiff, group head of the digital institutional banking group at Singapore-based bank DBS.
In a feature story, Latiff explains how banking APIs can facilitate eCommerce, support global trade, and enable the digital tax payments efforts of governments.
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