PAYMENTS ON FIRE RESOURCE CENTER

Smart thinking for smart payments professionals

Payments On Fire is the industry’s leading resource center for payments professionals. Here, you’ll find the resources and thought leadership that only Glenbrook’s experienced team can provide. Curated news stories, insightful opinion papers, provocative podcasts, and more – it’s all the thinking you need to stay competitive in a dynamic payments world.

February 28, 2023

Payments Post #1: Glenbrook’s February Roundup

There are a lot of headlines in the payments world. Payments News is Glenbrook’s curated news feed of the headlines that matter most every day, but we’ll readily acknowledge that it can be a lot to digest. That’s why we’re introducing Payments Post, a month-end roundup of the news items that got us talking as […]

January 31, 2023

Debbie Bartoo

Will We See Ongoing Success of Buy Now Pay Later?

Buy now pay later (BNPL) has become a global phenomenon. The global BNPL market size was valued at USD 15.91 billion in 2020 with growth to 90.51 billion by 2029 (source 1). If BNPL isn’t in your market today, it will likely be soon.  Look at any major country and you can see or read […]

January 18, 2023

Will Eisier

2023: A Big Year for Regulation in the US?

As we dive into the new year, we at Glenbrook reflect on the key themes and learnings within payments from 2022 and assess what we believe will emerge as key trends in 2023. My colleague Chris Uriarte recently shared his 8 Payments and Fintech trends for 2023 on LinkedIn, where he discussed fraud and embedded […]

January 16, 2023

November 21, 2022

Glenbrook logo

Decoupled Debit: How Fintechs Profited from Durbin

This Payments Views post was jointly authored by Neel Saunshi and Andrew Liang If you have followed the Durbin Amendment since its 2011 implementation, you have seen stakeholders adapt in different ways. Consumers saw their debit rewards programs disappear. Large financial institutions (banks and credit unions) added fees and shifted marketing to their credit card […]

October 6, 2022

George

Payments Partners: The Identity Industry

Time to Read: 9 minutes The problem of knowing who to trust on an insecure, anonymous network has concerned me since I founded an ISP in 1995. With thousands of subscribers, it was the first time I confronted bad online behavior. As a payments geek, I’ve seen plenty of these online bad behaviors emerge across […]

September 12, 2022

Justin

The Payments Playbook for Challenging Churn

By: Justin Pituch and Drew Edmond Time to Read: 7 minutes If you read Apple’s Q3 earnings report, you may have noticed that the company’s Services business has grown to $19 billion in quarterly revenue. That’s a staggering number, and it represents a complex recurring billing operation. With 860 million paid subscriptions, Apple’s payments team […]

April 27, 2022

May Bethany

CBDCs or Stablecoins? There’s space for both

By Bethany May 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 […]

April 18, 2022

Elizabeth McQuerry

Ubiquity, Same Day ACH and other Fast Payments

Time to Read: 3 minutes It’s truly remarkable how this decades-old, ANSI based, batch based payment method is slowly but surely finding renewed vigor in today’s world of “fast payments.”  Clients at Glenbrook continue to inquire about how ACH can be leveraged for their needs and a key reason is that it’s a ubiquitous payment […]

April 1, 2022

Will It Still Be the Payments Industry Without Allen Weinberg?

First things first – no, this is not one of those April Fool’s gags. It’s a bittersweet day at Glenbrook as we bid farewell to the last of our founders. Following the retirements of co-founders Scott Loftesness and Carol Coye Benson in the last few years, Allen Weinberg is officially leaving Glenbrook today for a […]

September 15, 2021

Laura

Making Digital Access Work in eGovernment Payments: Principles of Pro-Poor Design

Time to Read: 7 minutes Highlights: Design for low-income citizens is essential for successful eGovernment services Glenbrook has identified pro-poor implementation success factors: channel selection, payment methods, fee structure, and education Goal centered design brings the considerable benefits of eGovernment to all citizens Expanding eGovernment Services to the Poor eGovernment, which includes both online service […]

June 16, 2021

Heather

The Open Banking Phenomenon, Explained

Time to Read: 9 minutes Highlights: An introduction to open banking, its key concepts, and implications for payments industry participants  A framework for understanding open banking principles Adoption and usage statistics   What is Open Banking and Why Does it Matter? Over the last few years, the concept of open banking has gained popularity with […]

June 9, 2021

Nicole Pinto

ACH is Hot

Time to Read: 8 minutes Highlights: ACH, though a 50-year old payment system in the U.S., continues to grow The ACH ecosystem is evolving to meet modern-day needs: Nacha, the rule-making body, plans to implement a series of enhancements that address shortcomings in ACH usability Dynamic payment service providers (PSPs) and fintech infrastructure players are […]

April 29, 2021

Justin

The True Cost of Being Underbanked

Highlights It’s expensive to be a low income American, driven in part by the high cost of financial services available to such consumers. In this post, we break down where cost comes from, and how fintechs are changing the way working class Americans are able to access affordable financial products. Fintechs have an opportunity to […]

April 16, 2021

Heather

Raising Women’s Financial Inclusion in South Asia

Zak Kazzaz co-authored this post. Time to Read: 7 minutes Highlights: There is a set of high payoff steps necessary to increase financial inclusion of women in South Asia and other markets Collaboration across the stakeholder ecosystem accelerates female participation in financial services Glenbrook’s framework is an approach to evaluation and roadmapping     As […]

Recent Payment Views

Demystifying Payments Orchestration: Part 1

Demystifying Payments Orchestration: Part 1

Introduction For those of us who follow the payments industry, it has been difficult in the past few years to avoid the hype around payments orchestration.  The ubiquity of the term begs the question: what exactly does payments orchestration mean?  We see...

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