Current Events Economic Outlook Finance

Crisis on Wall Street

It's been a tumultuous, historic weekend on Wall Street. Lehman Brothers faces bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch agreed to be sold to Bank of America. Meanwhile, AIG is scrambling for cash. Highlights: "The American financial system was shaken to its core on Sunday." – Wall Street Journal “My goodness. I’ve been in the business 35 years, […]

Jacqueline Chilton Mobile Banking & Payments Mobile Technology

Report from CTIA - Mobile Payments Eventually

The CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment conference was held in San Francisco this week. Theme was “Wireless – It’s how you use it.” When it comes to mobile payments and mCommerce, I could not agree more.

Conferences & Meetings Jacqueline Chilton Mobile Banking & Payments Mobile Technology Writings

Report from CTIA - Mobile Payments Eventually

by Jacqueline Chilton The CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment conference was held in San Francisco this week. Theme was “Wireless – It’s how you use it.” When it comes to mobile payments and mCommerce, I could not agree more.

Bill Payment & Presentment Bryan Derman

Checking Up on Bill Presentment

CheckFree and AT&T Mobility recently announced that AT&T would begin supporting electronic bill presentment through CheckFree-powered bank bill pay sites. AT&T Mobility’s more than 70 million customers will now be able to receive their bills electronically at their bank’s bill pay site if the bank is a CheckFree customer. AT&T Mobility joins 400 other billers […]

Carol Coye Benson Writings

A Look at Billeo and Online Bill Payment in the US

Glenbrook’s Carol Coye Benson recently interviewed Murali Subbarao, CEO of Billeo, about the status of the online bill payment marketplace in the US.

Russ Jones Writings

Secure Vault Payments - A Bank-Centric Alternative Payment System

Glenbrook’s Russ Jones recently met with Ken Myles of NACHA to get an update on NACHA’s Secure Vault Payments initiative. Read on for Russ’ insights and reactions to what he learned.

Carol Coye Benson Writings

An Interview with Pariter Solutions CEO Stephanie Sturgis-Griffin

Glenbrook’s Carol Coye Benson recently interviewed Stephanie Sturgis-Griffin, the newly named CEO of Pariter Solutions, a Wells Fargo and Bank of America joint venture for ACH processing. The company, according to the press release announcing it last May, will be “the country’s largest processor of ACH payments”. Read on for Carol’s full report.

AFP B2B Global Payments Regulatory Environment Technology

Reprieve for IAT

On Friday, NACHA announced a six month extension of the deadline for International ACH Transactions (IAT) from March 2009 to September 2009. Many smaller banks were caught by surprise by the changes necessary to support IAT. Although software vendors are prepared to make the necessary changes available in upcoming releases and many banks outsource their […]

Women Professionals

50 Most Influential Female Bloggers

Most of the posts I read and reference in my professional blog are written by men (I don't know why, since banking, finance, and payments aren't lacking talented women). My neglected personal blog is equally lacking when it comes to referencing blogs written by women. Sadly, my RSS reader is too. But not for long… […]

Accounting Careers Finance Financial Reporting Technology

Spreadsheet "Worst Practices"

Attention Excel users! A couple related articles from CFO.com on spreadsheet worst practices and how to fix them. The first article generated so many emails that they published a follow up with even more tips. Spreadsheet "Worst Practices" Here's how finance executives abuse the most-useful of computer programs — and how to do better. Shahid […]

Careers Finance Management

CFOs: Balancing Business Results with Integrity

CFO.com interviews Ben Heineman, author of High Performance with High Integrity: According to CFO.com: Ben Heineman got an eyeful of the C-suite during his 18 years as general counsel for General Electric Co. until his retirement in 2005. A book by Heineman published in June, High Performance with High Integrity, argues that a chief financial […]

Accounting

Still Struggling with Close Processes?

Companies of all sizes – but especially large, multi-unit organizations that have grown through acquisition and have a spaghetti of accounting and finance systems – struggle to close their books in a timely manner each month, quarter, and year. Even those that do a good job each period, struggle to maintain control over the close […]

Technology

Blasphemy! Is Paper-based Manual Processing Better in Some Cases?

Over at BankerVision, James Gardner, heads toward blasphemous territory when he suggests that in some cases, paper based manual processing may make more sense and cost less than grappling with IT complexity. IT systems are now so expensive we are at an inflection point. The point where doing things manually is more economically efficient for […]

Management

25 Best Business Books Ever via Business Pundit

Check out Bussiness Pundit's list of the 25 Best Business Books Ever with convenient links to Amazon.com for those you haven't already read. They asked themselves: Based on prominent reviews, academic use, and popularity, which business books would be considered “classics?” Of those, which are the best? There aren't many surprises, and I am glad […]

Caught My Eye Change Management Management Women Professionals

Coordination and Communication in Modern, Complex, Multiunit Firms

My work often involves bridging gaps, resolving misunderstandings, and fostering collaboration between the finance department and other parts of large, complex organizations. So I was intrigued by this recent research from HBS on " interaction patterns in modern, complex, multiunit firms." Key findings: Communication is heavily constrained by formal organizational structure: the vast majority of […]