Payments News

USA Today touts no-signature transactions

USA Today features an article on the convenience – and hidden costs – of no signature small dollar credit card transactions. CardWeb.com estimates that the number of small dollar transactions has increased elevenfold since 2000. Card companies are increasingly allowing no-signature transactions for purchases of less than $25 at movie theaters, pharmacies, convenience stores and […]

Payments News

Coming Soon: Payments via Drivers License

Today's American Banker reports that as soon as next month consumers will be able to make debit payments using their drivers license or government issued ID card through the Fastlane Secure Payments network. How it Works Consumers enroll at the point of sale. They swipe a personal check or enter the MICR line and assign […]

Bryan Derman Writings

Wither the Empire?

By Bryan Derman Some thoughts from Bryan on reading leading indicators in Consumer Financial Services.

Allen Weinberg Writings

Payments 2004: The Merchant Perspective

By Allen Weinberg In his recent keynote address at the Direct Response Forum (DRF) conference in San Francisco, Glenbrook’s Allen Weinberg explored the payments acceptance landscape, how it relates to card-not-present merchants, and offered his assessment on what it may mean.

Russ Jones Writings

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 […]

Scott Loftesness Writings

Beware the Doves?

by Scott Loftesness Reflections on the PayPal/GE Consumer Finance Alliance On June 8th, 2004, PayPal quietly announced it was partnering with GE Capital Consumer Card Company to begin offering credit lines to customers that want extended payment terms for any PayPal purchase. PayPal’s business members started receiving direct mail pieces the following day offering new […]

Russ Jones Writings

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 […]

Carol Coye Benson Writings

Liability and Federated Identity: Much Ado About Nothing?

By Carol Coye Benson As enterprises implement new identity management systems, interest grows in federated identity. For small "circles of trust," existing business relationships—and existing contractual frameworks—are sufficient to build federated networks. But with eyes everywhere cast on the opportunity to create larger circles of trust, what business frameworks will be needed to support these […]

Russ Jones Writings

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 […]

Scott Loftesness Writings

Micropayments Redux at the iTunes Music Store

By Scott Loftesness I’ve been playing with the new Apple iTunes Music Store with my Mac OS X iBook—including buying some new (actually, old) music! In addition to rediscovering some favorite songs, I’m also exploring how Apple has tackled the micropayments problem using old-fashioned credit cards.

Russ Jones Writings

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.