A Look at PayPal's Q3 2008 Financial Results

by Russ Jones

eBay announced Q3 2008 results today, along with a significant PayPal milestone: off-Ebay purchase volume has for the first time exceeded on-eBay purchase volume. Before looking at what this means, the terminology here is worth clarifying. On-eBay purchase volume is all purchases made through PayPal to finalize purchases inside the eBay marketplace. Off-eBay purchase volume is all purchases made using PayPal with third-party merchants, unrelated to eBay. » More

Secure Vault Payments - A Bank-Centric Alternative Payment System

Glenbrook's Russ Jones recently met with Ken Myles of NACHA to get an update on NACHA's Secure Vault Payments initiative. Read on for Russ' insights and reactions to what he learned.

Apple Rocks the Mobile World

by Russ Jones

Apple announced their much anticipated software roadmap for the iPhone today, with a surprising (to me anyway) two-pronged push. I was waiting for the iPhone SDK announcement, but this turned out to be a bit more than I was expecting! » More

A Field Report from London

by Russ Jones

I'm in London this week for meetings with clients. Here's an "up close and personal" field report on my first real London shopping experience - payment card in hand - at Harrods. » More

The 10-Step Cookbook for Glenbrook's Thumbnail Mobile Banking Strategy

by Russ Jones

I completely agree with this thumbnail mobile banking strategy. But let's refine it a little into the 10-step cookbook version. » More

A Look at PayPal's Q2 Results

by Russ Jones

I recently took a look at the eBay Q2 2007 10-Q SEC filing to get some more details on the PayPal growth story. Read on for the details. » More

Peppercoin in the Payments Industry

Glenbrook has been following Peppercoin since 2002 and has closely monitored the company’s strategy and progress. We were pleased by Peppercoin’s shift in direction two years ago—and we continue to be impressed by its ability to listen to the market, adjust its strategy, and move forward with a payment service that we believe to be unique in the industry.

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Glenbrook's QuickTake: TextPayMe

Glenbrook's Russ Jones has taken a quick look at this new payment service offering and provides some initial comments on what he sees. Full story on Payments News.

Peppercoin V2.0

By Russ Jones

Peppercoin 2.0 extends the notion of transaction aggregation into both the physical world of small point-of-sale payments as well as across multiple merchants. Through this new “universal aggregation” capability, Peppercoin plans to aggregate individual consumer purchases at multiple merchants into a single card transaction. By doing this aggregation, the per-transaction fees that would otherwise be paid on each purchase are reduced—with the resulting savings shared between Peppercoin and merchants participating in the Peppercoin network. This research note analyzes how Peppercoin 2.0 actually works, explores its new value proposition, and offers an initial assessment of its potential strengths and weaknesses.

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RFID in Financial Services

By Russ Jones

Pundits believe that RFID tags—positioned as a next-generation replacement for the familiar bar code—are going to drive vast improvements in the efficiency of supply chains as products wind their way from the manufacturers out to the retail shelves. Critics believe that RFID tags pose a significant threat to personal privacy, in that tags worn or carried by individuals permit unwanted surveillance by anyone with an RFID reader. They contend that RFID technology and its use in business should be heavily regulated, if not outright banned for specific applications. The court of public opinion is still listening to both sides of the debate.

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Getting Out in Front of Financial Privacy

By Russ Jones

Momentum towards stronger financial privacy for consumers in the United States has picked up a lot of steam over the last 30 days. While most welcome the change, some financial institutions are still tentative about the new direction, others are actively resisting it, and a few are not sure how to respond. But to strategic thinking institutions wanting to secure competitive advantage, we believe that now is the time to act—getting out in front of the financial privacy issue, leveraging their reputations for trust, and better serving their customers in the process.

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Meet the Open Service Platforms

By Russ Jones

I recently attended the O'Reilly Emerging Technologies Conference hoping to learn about up and coming technologies that might hold promise for Glenbrook's clients. While I didn't find exactly what I was looking for (the opportunities in financial services for smart dust, robofly, and nanotechnologies continue to elude me) I did have one of those "Eureka!" moments when I understood how effectively the big three Internet applications—Amazon, Google, and eBay—have morphed into open service platforms. What is happening here on a broad scale should be instructive for many financial services providers and eCommerce providers.

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Identity Theft: I Should Be The First To Know

By Russ Jones

Identity theft—the fraudulent use of private personal data and financial credentials—is getting a lot of attention these days. Consumers are concerned and legislators are on the march proposing various regulatory solutions. Since most of the damage is done prior to detection, we argue that it is critical to get consumers involved as early as possible. Consumers are more eager to help than the financial services industry might think.

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The False Promise of Frictionless Commerce

By Russ Jones

Micropayments—those pay-per-click, penny-level transactions—are back in the news. Red Herring magazine recently published an article (1) entitled "Micropayment's Big Potential" that paints a pretty rosy picture about several up and coming micropayment systems.

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Critiquing a Liberty Alliance Critique

By Russ Jones and Scott Loftesness

In a recent critique of the Liberty Alliance entitled "On Liberty and the Case for Anonymous Federation of Identity," (1) Doug Kaye raises several critical points about the Liberty 1.0 specifications:

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