Новости за 30.12.2024

Online ticketing marketplace Vivid Seats is reportedly exploring a sale after getting some takeover interest. The company, which competes with the likes of SeatGeek and StubHub, is working with an advisor to determine the interest of potential buyers, including private equity firms, Bloomberg News reported Monday (Dec. 30), citing sources familiar with the matter. PYMNTS has contacted Vivid Seats for comment but […]

For outdoor event-goers, weather can be both a blessing and a curse. While a sunny day can make for a perfect concert or festival, the prospect of rain or extreme heat can leave ticket-holders second-guessing their purchases. Enter Sensible Weather, a provider of weather-related protection which partnered with Ticketbud to offer a new Weather Guarantee […]

Apple TV will offer free access to its streaming service this weekend. “This weekend, see for yourself,” the company wrote in a Monday (Dec. 30) post with an accompanying video on social platform X. “Stream for free Jan. 4-5.” This weekend, see for yourself. Stream for free Jan 4-5. pic.twitter.com/8p6PCUYpms — Apple TV (@AppleTV) December […]

Canada-based online bookkeeping and tax filing platform Bench Accounting shut down its services and operations as of Friday (Dec. 27). “We regret to inform you that we have shut down Bench services,” the company said in a notice of service closure on its website. “As of December 27, 2024, the Bench platform is no longer […]

Low-level bank employees are selling customer information to scammers, exposing a weakness in financial institutions’ risk protections. It’s a pattern cropping up at banks around the country, Bloomberg reported Monday (Dec. 30). Banks say the burden for preventing these types of scams falls to the customers themselves. But although some scams seem to target people […]

Throughout 2024, the adoption of virtual cards signaled a shift in how businesses approach B2B payments. Historically relegated to the sidelines due to limited supplier acceptance, virtual cards are now increasingly moving to the forefront of payment innovation, in large part by addressing the critical inefficiencies inherent in traditional payment methods like checks and ACH […]

Crypto.com partnered with the United Arab Emirates’ Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB). The collaboration is designed to expand the company’s presence in the UAE and Gulf countries at large, according to a Monday (Dec. 30) press release. Its focus is promoting Crypto.com’s app and card via the bank’s channels, “with reward-based campaigns for DIB’s customers, and […]

The convergence of affordable microcomputing and low-code software platforms is fundamentally reshaping how enterprises approach innovation. Just take, for example, the evolution of the single-board computer (SBC) maker Raspberry Pi’s business model from B2C to B2B. Initially designed as an educational tool, the microcomputer company reportedly now sells over 200,000 of its products every week and […]

Nayax will deploy its fuel management system, EasyFuelPlus, across the U.K. delivery fleet of grocery and general merchandise retailer Tesco. EasyFuelPlus reduces waste by dispensing the exact fuel grade and volume needed for each vehicle, tracks fuel efficiency by collecting odometer and engine hour data, reduces unauthorized usage by enhancing security, and delivers real-time insights […]

Digital assets platform MoonPay said it is among the first companies approved under Europe’s cryptocurrency regulation. The company secured approval under the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, passed by the European Parliament last year, according to a Monday (Dec. 30) press release. The rule creates a unified regulatory environment for digital assets in the European […]

Companies are grappling with whether to implement powerful artificial intelligence (AI) models that promise enhanced reasoning capabilities but come with substantial computing and integration costs. The surge of new AI releases from industry leaders like OpenAI and Google has sparked intense debate among business leaders about the real-world value proposition of these systems. While proponents […]

Donald Trump’s election last month sparked a cryptocurrency rally, with bitcoin’s price hitting record highs. Weeks later, the momentum of that run seems to be waning, Bloomberg News reported Monday (Dec. 30). Bitcoin’s price in London Monday morning, that report said, wavered at just north of $93,000, a $15,000 drop from the record reached weeks ago. That surge […]

There are 52 Mondays in a year. For the last 15 of those years, I have published a piece of content on as many of those Mondays as I could. My all-time record was 56. This year I clocked in at 15. My writings in 2024 focused on fewer topics — those with deeper purpose […]

Credit card defaults are at their highest level since 2010 as consumers feel increasingly stretched. As the Financial Times (FT) reported Sunday (Dec. 29), card lenders wrote off $46 billion in seriously delinquent loans in the first nine months of this year, a 50% jump over 2023. That’s the highest level in 14 years, the […]

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is revolutionizing retail, providing innovative solutions to real-world challenges like inventory management. In this report, PYMNTS Intelligence examines critical business problems faced by retailers — such as stock shortages, overproduction and shifting consumer demand. It illustrates how GenAI is addressing these matters with insight and precision. By fine-tuning demand forecasting, streamlining […]

Credit takes center stage in the spending habits and financial lifestyles of today’s consumers. Increasingly, consumers strategically use multiple credit products to maintain financial flexibility and maximize benefits. Credit cards remain the most widely used product, with 68% of consumers holding active accounts. Higher-income consumers lead in adoption of credit cards, in addition to mortgages […]

A quarter-century into the new millennia, the banking and payments industries have witnessed a rapid pace of change. Consumers and businesses demand faster, more efficient transaction methods, pushing financial institutions to prioritize real-time capabilities. “We launched the RTP® network about seven years ago from scratch,” Jim Colassano, The Clearing House’s senior vice president of RTP […]

The CE 100 Index barely budged in a shortened trading week that left only two more days of stock market action for 2024. The index was down a scant 0.02%, and the year-to-date performance — where the index is up 24.8% — continues to trail most major indices, save the Dow Jones Industrial Average, as […]

One-click checkout solutions top the wish list of U.S. online merchants when it comes to checkout and payment technologies. Forty-five percent of these merchants have asked their payment service providers (PSPs) to provide this technology, viewing it as a way to increase conversion rates, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence and Mastercard collaboration, “The Role of […]

The new year will be crucial for Google, the tech giant’s CEO told staff recently. Sundar Pichai addressed employees earlier this month about Google’s plans for 2025, telling them that “the stakes are high,” CNBC reported Friday (Dec. 27). “I think 2025 will be critical,” Pichai said, per audio obtained by the network. “I think […]

The age of COVID-initiated supply shortages at car dealers is over. And that’s placed pressure on carmakers and dealers to price their unsold wares more aggressively, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Sunday (Dec. 29). During this month’s hectic shopping season, car buyers got — on average — about $3,400 in discounts and other incentives. […]

Facing rising competition in the AI chip space, Nvidia is reportedly turning to robotics. The $3.3 trillion company, whose tech has helped drive the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), will launch the next version  of compact computers for humanoid robots — dubbed Jetson Thor — in the first half of next year, the Financial Times […]

Inspired by Tether’s success, the world’s banking giants are showing interest in stablecoins. As Bloomberg News reported Saturday (Dec. 28), some banks are already there, with Societe Generale – Forge (SG-Forge) opening its euro-backed stablecoin to retail investors earlier this year. Revolut is reportedly considering its own version, as is AllUnity, a venture involving the […]