Cross-border Payments Financial Inclusion Global Payments

Decoding a cross-border business payment to Rwanda: detailing the journey, the costs, and our observations

By Elizabeth McQuerry, Cici Northup, & Victor Malu   Introduction Glenbrook is based in the U.S., but we work on projects around the world; our global practice often supports clients in emerging markets. From time to time, for more formal proposal processes, we are asked to provide a corresponding bid security. For anyone not familiar […]

COVID-19 George Peabody Glenbrook Payments Views

We Are All Connected - Payments in the Post-COVID Era

Economies, global and domestic, are both interconnected and interdependent. Routine perturbations like economic slowdowns and recessions illuminate those dependencies as pain in one sector spreads to an adjacent one. COVID-19, and the global economic, social, and political reaction to it, put these linkages in high relief. The COVID-19 pandemic’s disruptive impact on global trade, national […]

Glenbrook Nicole Pinto Payments Views

COVID-19 and the Income Domain

The Income Domain consists of payments to individuals for salary, benefits, rebates, and expense reimbursements. In the U.S., these payments are made primarily via direct deposit through NACHA’s ACH system, and to a lesser extent, paper checks and payroll cards. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to widespread business shutdown, and as a result, caused mass […]

Glenbrook Global Payments Zak Kazzaz

Regulatory Analysis of KYC for Covid-19 in Emerging Markets

Download a PDF version of this document here. Read our introductory discussion here. Regulatory Background The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) sets global standards for combating money laundering (ML) and the financing of terrorism (TF) and proliferation. While its recommendations are not binding, they are broadly accepted by regulators as guidelines for national rules.  FATF […]

Global Payments Regulation Zak Kazzaz

UPDATED: Balancing KYC Regulation and COVID-19 Relief in Emerging Markets

Download the PDF of our Regulatory Analysis of KYC for Covid-19 in Emerging Markets or read the web version. Among today’s most pressing questions for emerging market governments is how to get assistance funds into the hands of those who need it given the COVID-19 crisis. This need is especially acute in emerging markets that lack […]

Payments Views

Why Talk About Risk in Payments?

Let’s be honest, risk is not the first topic people gravitate to in payments. It’s much cooler to talk about open banking, fret about PSD2 implications, or ponder the pros and cons of a cashless society. Even risk managers I know tend to keep quiet about risk – especially at social events. So why are […]

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 […]

ACH Banking Industry Bryan Derman Card Networks Fast Payments Interchange ISO 20022 MasterCard TCH UK Wires

Scheming and Processing - Faster

Last week’s news that MasterCard was exploring an investment or outright acquisition of VocaLink really lit up the “News” channel on our Slack system at Glenbrook. For those unfamiliar, VocaLink is a company currently owned by 17 large U.K. financial institutions, which operates the U.K.’s main ATM network (Link), its ACH-equivalent system (Bacs), and most […]

Card Payments Cross-border Payments Fast Payments Foreign Exchange Glenbrook Payments Education Global Payments Remittances Russ Jones SEPA SWIFT UK

Inside the Payments Boot Camp - Global Payments

Last year we expanded our Payments Boot Camp program to include a series of one-day workshops that give us an opportunity to dive a little deeper into a topic to share our experience and insights in a more interactive forum. And no topic has as much “real-world” demand as Global Payments. It’s a broad area […]

Allen Weinberg Card Payments Global Payments South Korea

The South Korean Card Market’s Fascinating Structure

My partner, Bryan Derman, and I just returned from a week in South Korea and a deep immersion in the local card market. As consultants serving clients across the globe—including payments -related companies in Europe, Africa, Latin America, and Asia—we are repeatedly reminded of the remarkable differences between adjacent countries in any given region.  A […]

Atlanta Conferences & Meetings Elizabeth McQuerry Innovation Start Ups What's New

“The U.S. itself was a start-up”: Notes from Venture Atlanta 2012

Young Atlanta-area businesses with big ideas and the venture capitalists that seek those big ideas gathered in Atlanta in October 17 and 18 to showcase the start-ups and share experiences from alumni. My focus in attending the conference was to see which of the start-ups featured payments angles and how this important aspect was being […]

Tags: Atlanta Start Ups

B2B Payments Banking Industry Commercial Payments Conferences & Meetings ECommerce Erin McCune Financial Regulators Global Payments Globalization Innovation Mobile Banking & Payments SWIFT

Reflections on Sibos 2010

This week I’ve been in Amsterdam for Sibos – the annual international banking conference sponsored by SWIFT. (For those of you who aren’t familiar with SWIFT it is a consortium of worldwide banks that runs a global secure network connecting banks in over 200 countries. Interbank messages to support payments and brokerage trades all travel […]

Contactless Erin McCune Glenbrook Point of Sale (POS) Prepaid Technology

Payment Geek Meet Up at Menlo Park 7-Eleven

Yesterday Consult Hyperion’s Dave Birch paid a visit to Glenbrook World HQ here in Menlo Park. We talked payments, consulting, emerging markets, and blogging. But the highlight was our test of his UK issued contactless payment sticker at the 7-Eleven next to our office. It worked! You have to be a hardcore contactless geek to understand […]

Banking Banking Industry Card Payments Debit Cards Financial Regulators Interchange Regulatory Environment Uncategorized

The End of Interchange?

There, did I get your attention? … Tonight’s headlines say it even more clearly – see this Wall St. Journal story titled “Merchants Win Debit-Card Fee Battle“. Or, see this post on PaymentsNews.com about the Durbin compromise announced earlier today. Seriously, it seems to me that there’s a bit of a sleeper buried in all […]

Conferences & Meetings Erin McCune Global Payments Innovation Mobile Banking & Payments P2P

Mobile Financial Services for the Next Billion Customers: A Panel Discussion

Last Thursday evening I attended a superb mobile payment panel organized by mPayConnect and co-hosted by the Wharton and Harvard MBA alumni associations at the Wharton West campus in San Francisco. The evening’s topic was From Afghanistan to Silicon Valley: Mobile Financial Services for the Next Billion Customers. Menekse Gencer  of mPayConnect moderated and brought […]