
Carol offers clients over 25 years of experience in product, marketing, and strategy development with leading financial services providers in both wholesale and retail banking. She has offered management direction to companies providing corporate cash management, security and authentication, and payment systems processing.
Before founding Glenbrook Partners, Carol served as a managing director of the Global Institutional Services division of Deutsche Bank (previously Bankers Trust), where she oversaw marketing, client online services, and Internet development. At Visa International, she led a group conducting early work on the use of credit cards online, and a project that pioneered database marketing and related consumer-privacy issues. Carol also founded and managed Visa's European product-development office, where she led a series of electronic-commerce and chip-card projects designed to bring European banks online. Prior to her career with Visa International, Carol spent twelve years with Citibank, where she managed the development and market introduction of new payments products. Carol began her career as a corporate lending officer for large multinationals at both Bank of America and Citibank.
In addition to her work as a consultant, Carol is the Partner in Charge of Glenbrook's Payments Boot Camp program. This unique program provides executive training for professionals in the payments industry. Glenbrook Payments Boot Camps are held throughout the year both as public events and as customized, private sessions for clients.
After years of working in the somewhat arcane arena of digital identity and authentication, I’ve found my attention to what’s going on slipping somewhat. » More
Glenbrook, in cooperation with Forte Financial just finished our first Payments Workshop on B2B payments, called "eB2B Payments at the Tipping Point". » More
I spoke last week with Elliott McEntee, President and CEO of NACHA about two current issues - NACHA's reaction to "de-coupled debits" and the progress of the Secure Vault Payments program. » More
On a New York visit over the last several days, I used four taxis - and paid with my debit card each time. (New York City has recently implemented a regulation requiring all cabs to accept card payments - without minimums or added fees.)
As I paid, I asked each driver whether or not card payments were good for drivers. I got two vehement "no's", with bitter remarks about the 5% fee they pay. I got one equally emphatic "yes", with the added comment that tips were much better on airport runs. And I got one perfect New York "whatever.." with matching shrug. » More
One of the reasons I went to the AFP (Association for Finance Professionals) conference in Boston in October 2007 was to get updated on the progress of the migration of business to business (B2B) payments from checks to electronics.
As a general statement, progress on this has been very slow. But recent acquisitions (Xign by JPMorgan Chase, Harbor by Amex) and product announcements (most recently, the MasterCard Payment Gateway) seemed to signal a change in pace.
So off to Boston I went, asking myself the question: Are there developments that will change the pace of conversion to electronics? My answer is “yes” – read on! » More
Here's an update on NACHA topics from this morning's sessions at the Association for Financial Processionals conference being held this week in Boston. » More
There are 6,000 people at this year's AFP (Association of Finance Professionals) conference in Boston, and it feels like half of them must be smashed into this morning's session on "The Retail Merchant's Customers' Payment Options: Deciding Between C21, BOC, ARC & POP". » More
Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson is back from this week's Payments 2007 conference sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. The theme of this year's conference was "Competitive Forces Shaping the Payments Environment: What's Next?." Click here to read Carol's full conference report on Payments News.
When President Bush signed the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACTA) into law late last year, bankers throughout the U.S. breathed a sigh of relief. Even with some fairly stringent new provisions, the permanent renewal of the FCRA’s preemption provisions -- which curtail the ability of consumer-friendly state law to override provisions of the federal legislation -- was good news for banking.
» MoreAs enterprises implement new identity management systems, interest grows in federated identity. For small "circles of trust," existing business relationshipsand existing contractual frameworksare sufficient to build federated networks. But with eyes everywhere cast on the opportunity to create larger circles of trust, what business frameworks will be needed to support these large-scale federated networks?
» MoreHow the Liberty Alliance and related digital identity protocols may solve the identity theft crisis.
» MoreThere's a sea change happening in the world of digital identity. Suddenly, crypto-geeks and impassioned aficionados of biometrics, software tokens, and smart cards are being pushed to the side. The suits have arrived! Digital identity is no longer about security; it's now a marketing conversation.
» MoreLike everyone else in the digital identity world, I have spent the last few days reading through the version 1.0 specifications from the Liberty Alliance. Overall, hats off! Alliance members have done an outstanding job of creating a framework for shared authentication and identity. We can (and will) argue with elements of the designwith its over-complication of simple processes and the over-simplification of complex issues. But the Alliance has commendably tackled most of the issues, and importantly not shied away from the hard problems or vulnerabilities. This has neatly set the stage for early adopters to get to work.
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