“If you thought bitcoin was dead as a payments system, take a listen to George and Jimmy Nguyen, founding president of the Bitcoin Association , as they discuss Bitcoin SV, a new version of bitcoin that is a significant upgrade to the performance and capabilities of the original bitcoin protocol put into the world a decade ago.”

“In this Episode 99 of Payments on Fire® we talk with Rick Lynch, VP of Business Development from Verifi , about the impact of chargebacks on merchants and issuers. He updates us on rule changes by Visa and Mastercard. And he addresses the process and techniques al approaches needed to handle these post-authorization events. While only mentioned in passing during the episode, Verify is being acquired by Visa , in another example of expansion by card network operators into adjacent payment ecosystem roles.”

“Here on Payments on Fire® we’ve spoken a lot with risk and fraud management firms that generally offer some combination of services and technologies that promises to lower customer exposure to payments fraud, data theft, and operational risk. There’s another dimension to cyber security that’s based on expertise – before and after a data breach. That’s the subject of this episode.”

“From the traditional banks’ perspective, fintech companies are just a front-end customer acquisition tool and source of cheap deposits, or a potentially strategic partner, nimble enough to keep the incumbent ahead of the curve and remain relevant. There is a category of banks I call the “fintech enabler banks,” or, “ small banks you’ve never heard of ” that power much of the fintech industry. These banks operate largely behind the scenes, partnering with challenger banks or fintech firms that serve specific verticals—think online lending or wealth management—in order to offer adjacent banking products and services.”

“Apple’s March 25th keynote event announced forthcoming offerings to further build out Apple’s Services line—video media streaming, print media subscriptions, gaming, and more. Most interesting to us at Glenbrook (surprise!) was Apple’s co-branded credit card launched in partnership with Goldman Sachs and Mastercard. The Apple Card, to be released in the summer, integrates consumer controls, personal financial management, interest expense management tools, instant cashback rewards, and advanced privacy and security measures into the iOS ecosystem. While the Apple Card doesn’t introduce a wholly new category of card, it neatly packages together a new combination of features we’ve seen before in card products —and integrates these features into its iPhone-native Wallet app.”

“The digital marketplace model brings together buyers and sellers and, frequently, handles the money and payouts to the sellers. As my guest today has determined, digital infrastructure, e-commerce usage, competition, and workforce characteristics influence a country’s ability to establish a flourishing marketplace component to the economy. This marketplace economic model is a useful one enabling, among other use cases, the gig economy. Adopted in countries like China, the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, and other established markets, this episode’s guest, Tomas Likar, Head of Business Development and Strategy at Hyperwallet, has done a lot of thinking about its role in these and other countries.”

“Such data sharing is the proposition of Ethoca, a firm that federates bank fraud signals from hundreds of major global issuers and connects to thousands of merchants in the developed world in order to share alerts and chargeback messages. In this conversation with Keith Briscoe, CMO at Ethoca, we talk about the chargeback problem, hear some truly astounding chargeback stories (hackers aren’t the only fraudsters), and discuss Ethoca’s role in this space.”

“All of the 2019 prediction stories got me thinking about the mega trends in the payments industry. These are the year-over-year tectonic shifts in the industry that you can bet your company’s strategy on — maybe even bet your career on. In a landscape of trees, this is what the forest looks like.”

“When it comes to fraud prevention, it turns out that data is key. No revelation there, but how we manipulate it, gather it, and assure its provenance is undergoing major change. What would be a revelation to fraud managers of a decade ago is the unbelievable amount of data and the wide variety of sources that we have today. It’s a flood.”

“Like Square, Heartland has realized the revenue benefits of expanded commerce services above and beyond the traditional payments revenue stream. By cross selling multiple services, Heartland expects to see 60% of its revenues coming from payments coupled with value-added services that automate the business of their customers. If you’re interested in how the payments industry is evolving to market demands or how larger restaurant operators think about payments, Tim’s observations are well worth your time. Take a listen.”

“For those of you who didn’t make it to Money20/20 and want to hear the latest on The Clearing House’s Real Time Payments Network (RTP), take a listen to this update conversation with Steve Ledford, SVP at The Clearing House for the RTP Network. A year ago, The Clearing House got out of the gate with its Real Time Payments Network, a wholly new payments system based on the push payment model. A lot has changed – more banks have integrated into the system and many more are in process. By the end of June 2019, over 3,000 FIs are expected to connect to RTP, most via their bank processor. B2B payments are taking place over RTP between known parties. “

“For those of you who didn’t make it to Money20/20 and want to hear the latest on The Clearing House’s Real Time Payments Network (RTP), take a listen to this update conversation with Steve Ledford, SVP at The Clearing House for the RTP Network. A year ago, The Clearing House got out of the gate with its Real Time Payments Network, a wholly new payments system based on the push payment model. A lot has changed – more banks have integrated into the system and many more are in process. By the end of June 2019, over 3,000 FIs are expected to connect to RTP, most via their bank processor. B2B payments are taking place over RTP between known parties.”