Banking Carol Coye Benson Fast Payments Uncategorized

A Deposit By Any Other Name?

What’s the difference between card acceptance and a deposit? In both cases, money is being delivered into a merchant’s bank account – in fact, a purist would point out that a deposit actually is the last stage of card acceptance for a merchant. But consider instead a different kind of deposit – something that is […]

Brazil Elizabeth McQuerry Global Payments Mexico Mobile Payments Uncategorized

The Biggest Mobile Payments Story You’ve Never Heard

As we move into 2014 – yet (again) the year when many say mobile payments are destined to gain traction – let’s look at some key developments in the space. No, I’m not talking about the newest pilot participant in ISIS or whether Apple will be the new sheriff in town. Instead, let’s look to […]

Authentication Card Fraud George Peabody Point of Sale (POS) Security Technology

The Age of Context and Security

The news from Target, increasing the number of cards compromised to 70 million and the expansion of data loss to mailing and email addresses, phone numbers, and names, affirms that we’re in a security crisis.  As my colleague Scott Loftesness puts it, card data is, from a brand and business perspective, the new radioactive material.  […]

Banking Industry Bitcoin Financial Regulators FinCEN Money Transmission Regulatory Environment

Payments Regulation in the United States is Hampering Innovation (Really?)

A great friend of Glenbrook’s is Broox Peterson, formerly Senior Vice President and Assistant General Counsel at Visa International and currently in private practice. Earlier we posted his article So You Want to Start a Payments Company? which has helped many entrepreneurs and investors understand the considerations involved in payments-related businesses. In this new article, […]

Bitcoin Financial Regulators George Peabody Innovation Math-based Currencies

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

Conferences & Meetings Micropayments Mobile Banking & Payments Remittances Research Round Up

It’s Complicated: What we can learn from the developing world about payments

I was fortunate enough to spend a day yesterday at Bill Maurer’s IMTFI (Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion) conference at UC Irvine.  Bill is an anthropologist, and his institute funds fascinating small projects in developing countries that look at how people interact with money.  (IMTFI, in turn, is funded by the Bill & […]

Tags: Financial Inclusion

Merchants Mobile Payments Mobile Technology Mobile Wallets PayPal Russ Jones

The Mobile Wallet Wars of 2014

Our clients are starting to ask us who we think is going to win the mobile wallet war in 2014. Questions like: What’s happening with the Isis rollout? What’s the next likely step in the evolution of the Google Wallet? Is PayPal’s In-Store initiative getting any consumer adoption? All of these questions are predicated on […]

Tags: isis paypal starbucks

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 […]

Brazil Elizabeth McQuerry Global Payments Mobile Banking & Payments Regulatory Environment

Brazil’s New Payments Law: Boldly Going Where Few Have Dared to Go Before?

Back in late May, I shared the news and some observations about new payments legislation in Brazil.  Last week, less than four months later, that legislation has now become law. The major tenets of the legislation remain intact and Brazil is now firmly in the small group of countries that is formally coming to terms […]

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 […]

Tags: apple Google paypal

Bitcoin George Peabody

Bitcoin’s Growth Not Without Pains

At a mostly excellent Inside Bitcoins conference last week in NYC, the major features and flaws of the Bitcoin experiment were on full display. Starting with the keynote of BitInstant CEO Charlie Shrem to some excellent panels featuring thoughtful and experienced participants, the conference offered ample evidence of the potential for Bitcoin and other math-based […]

Bitcoin George Peabody Math-based Currencies

The Payments and Bitcoin Survey

Bitcoin and other virtual currencies have gained plenty of attention from the financial press and blogosphere, the technology press, and to a lesser degree, the media at large. We’ve read the pros and cons, predictions of both revolution and disaster. And we’ve seen how this ferment has attracted multiple angel and VC investors to the […]

Tags: survey

Bitcoin George Peabody Merchants

Bitcoin, Merchant Risk, and the Need for Speed

Bitcoin’s volatility continues to swing with the mood of investors, speculators, and the economic travails of countries like Argentina where Bitcoin usage is up sharply as concerns over the peso rise. The btc currency has swung between $70 and $100 since its astonishing mid-April high of $230. In other words, if you’re a bitcoin holder, […]

George Peabody Mobile Payments Mobile Wallets PayPal Square

Mobile Payments Are Taking Off—On a Long Runway

Just before the 4th of July holiday, Felix Salmon, finance blogger at Reuters, wrote an insightful piece, sharply critical of mobile payments and the long anticipated ability of our clever smartphones and wireless communications to improve upon a simple plastic payment card. It’s hard to argue with much of his critique. Salmon’s piece set off […]

Tags: fis mcx