Cross-border Payments Fast Payments Global Payments

On the journey to fast and low-cost cross-border payments (not yet at the destination)

Impetus to improve cross-border payments Whether you are deep in the cross-border payments space or have sent (or tried to send) a cross-border payment, you know these are not as easy as paying for your morning coffee or sending money to a local friend for last night’s dinner. Domestic payments have become faster, if not […]

Digital Currency

CBDCs or Stablecoins? There’s space for both

Time to Read: 6 minutes Central Banks and Private Sector Issuers continue to develop their respective digital currencies, CBDCs and stablecoins. While this could be perceived as a type of competition, realistically both stablecoins and CBDCs could co-exist and provide differentiated benefits. Digital currencies are on the rise. Private sector stablecoins are being adopted at […]

Cash Payments CDBC Justin Pituch

Will Digital Cash Be the New King of Payments?

  First of a series on Central Bank Digital Currencies Central banks around the world are in the process of developing digital cash, commonly known as central bank digital currency, or CBDC. At Glenbrook, we’re kicking off a series of Payments Views posts that explain CBDC and its implications for various aspects of the payments […]

Bryan Derman Glenbrook Uncategorized

In Zuck We Trust?          

We got the first real details this week on the Facebook-sponsored Libra cryptocurrency. Opinions are still taking shape around Glenbrook, but it’s fair to say that the team is deeply intrigued by the possibilities and sees it as both a novel and potentially very practical application of blockchain technology. We think the consortium-based governance, open […]

Elizabeth McQuerry Global Payments Interoperability Mobile Banking & Payments Mobile Payments Remittances SADC

Expanded Frontiers in Mobile Payment

One of the payments obsessions here at Glenbrook is understanding the ways in which mobile payment and digital financial services are taking hold around the world. Once effectively limited to the early success of M-PESA and P2P payment in Kenya, today there are a number of services underway. M-PESA itself, in around a decade, has […]

Banking Banking Industry Bitcoin Carol Coye Benson Disruptive Innovation Math-based Currencies SWIFT

Five Answers - Sort of - to the Big Questions on Blockchain and Bitcoin

I’m back from two days at Consensus 2016 in NYC, and reporting as promised into my investigation of the Five Big Questions. 1. Bitcoin technology: will the problems (versions, processing time, scalability) be  resolved? Yes. My belief that we are all writing this off too soon in favor of “all things blockchain” was reinforced. Glenn […]

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It’s About the Blockchain

We’ve been working with bitcoin at Glenbrook for a few years now, teaching about it in our boot camps, and holding one-day workshops on math-based currencies and blockchain technology. I have one conclusion. The focus of the evolution of digital money is shifting. Where that evolution will take us is still unknown. To borrow a […]

Banking Banking Industry Bitcoin Conferences & Meetings Cross-border Payments Elizabeth McQuerry Fast Payments Federal Reserve Global Payments Math-based Currencies Mobile Money Uncategorized

The Loosely Woven Threads of Sibos 2014

I’m just back from Boston and the marathon known as Sibos 2014. In a post earlier this week, I shared a couple of observations from the show floor and the conference sessions. Now that the conference has closed, I’m thinking about the themes that spoke to me. And, this year, I didn’t get the sense […]

Bitcoin Carol Coye Benson Cash Payments Federal Reserve Innovation Math-based Currencies Mobile Money Mobile Payments Money Transmission Virtual Currency

Do You Want a Million Dollars?

I was delighted and fascinated to see that the Gates Foundation has issued a “Grand Challenge” on enabling universal acceptance of mobile money payments.  The Foundation’s previous best-known challenges have been in healthcare, notably for toilets and condoms, so this is quite a change! The Foundation is soliciting two-page proposals on innovative devices, software or business […]

Bitcoin Conferences & Meetings Cross-border Payments Erin McCune Global Payments Math-based Currencies Micropayments Technology

Back from the Future: Bitcoin2014 Musings

Last week I was in Amsterdam for the second annual conference hosted by the The Bitcoin Foundation. As a strategist and advocate for ever-better payment solutions, I was very curious to learn how the Bitcoin protocol and its emerging enablers can address some of the most intractable challenges facing payments. For the most part, payments […]

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Bitcoin in 2014

Last year was, of course, the break out year for Bitcoin.  Incubating in geek-nurtured obscurity during its first few years, 2013 saw the international media, global investors, entrepreneurs, and even a few just plain citizens jump onto the math-based currency (fewer managed to actually purchase some bitcoin). The currency has since ballooned in value.  It […]

Card Payments Carol Coye Benson Payments Views

The State of Payments: 2014

What a year it has been! Twelve months ago, there were still people in our industry who didn’t know what Bitcoin was. There were still people who believed that EMV would roll out in the U.S. just like it did in the U.K. There were still people who thought that the developing world would build […]

Tags: state of payments

B2B Payments Bitcoin Conferences & Meetings Cross-border Payments Erin McCune Federal Reserve Globalization Marketing & Offers Math-based Currencies Mobile Wallets Technology

Money2020: Impressions & Observations

I’ve nearly recovered from the payments overload that was Money2020 last week in Las Vegas – it was initially exhilarating, then incredibly exhausting, but I had a fantastic time. Here’s my admittedly subjective take based on having attended only two sessions (one of which I moderated) and stood in the back for only part of […]

Micropayments Russ Jones

Aggregation and Aggravation - Micropayments 2013

Micropayments is a problem that has never been solved in the payments industry. While there are various merchant-specific solutions for selling low-cost goods, the broader opportunity –– to pervasively enable micropayments –– continues to intrigue the payments industry. Why do micropayments endure as such a challenge in payments? The problem has been the same for […]

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Bitcoin PayPal Russ Jones

Does PayPal Need A Bitcoin Strategy?

Because we live in a tweet-constrained world, the short answer is yes. But I think every player in the financial services industry needs a Bitcoin strategy — payments enablers especially. By strategy I mean that every company involved in payments should evaluate whether Bitcoin, and digital currencies (math-based, virtual, etc.) more broadly, are friend or […]

Tags: bitcoin strategy