Glenbrook Innovation

Creative Tension Shapes the Fintech-Bank Ecosystem

In my last post I covered the proliferation of challenger banks, the mobile-first, digital-only neo-banks and what differentiates them from the incumbents. While the media lens is usually focused on the front-end, the user experience, I’m always curious about what’s powering these operations under the hood. From the traditional banks’ perspective, fintech companies are just […]

Glenbrook

Prepaid Power and Financial Inclusion at Fintech South

Georgia is a nexus of global payment processing and merchant acquiring activity. Some two-thirds of all U.S. purchase volume is processed there. That’s a lot of debit and credit card transactions. But what are those same companies doing to improve payments for the underbanked? That combination of payments technology and financial inclusion concerns was the […]

Glenbrook

The Apple Card May Not be Revolutionary—But It Offers a Thoughtful Bundle of Features and a Glimpse into the Post-Card Era

Apple’s March 25th keynote event announced forthcoming offerings to further build out Apple’s Services line—video media streaming, print media subscriptions, gaming, and more. Most interesting to us at Glenbrook (surprise!) was Apple’s co-branded credit card launched in partnership with Goldman Sachs and Mastercard. The Apple Card, to be released in the summer, integrates consumer controls, […]

Payments Views

Challenging the Challenger Banks

Fintech startups have begun a phenomenon some call the “unbundling of financial services” through standalone products such as unsecured consumer loans, credit cards, checking and savings accounts, or personal financial management tools. A cohort of entities known as “challenger banks” or “neo-banks” have also entered the market in an attempt to take on digital banking […]

Subscription Management

To Subscribe or Not to Subscribe

After yet another data breach, I was recently told by a subscription-based publisher that my payment credentials held on file may be compromised. I took the necessary precautionary measures (e.g. retire previous payment credentials, establish new ones, etc.). During this process, I also decided to do a quick personal audit to answer the question: Where […]

Russ Jones

The Five Biggest Trends in Payments

All of the 2019 prediction stories got me thinking about the mega trends in the payments industry. These are the year-over-year tectonic shifts in the industry that you can bet your company’s strategy on — maybe even bet your career on. In a landscape of trees, this is what the forest looks like. Trend #1 […]

Regulation

Madness in Marijuana Payments - Part 2

Since my April 2018 post, there’s been a lot of activity in the “land of weed.” Multiple countries and U.S. states have moved toward legalization. Major non-cannabis industries are investing heavily in cannabis related products and cannabis-based companies. With U.S. Attorney Jeff Sessions out, his strict stance against marijuana perhaps no longer holding, many are […]

Bitcoin Carol Coye Benson Glenbrook Payments Views

A Dollar by Any Other Name: Thoughts on Digital Fiat Currency

What are central banks – and governments – going to do about cryptocurrencies? I was in New York last week to better understand what central bankers are thinking about – and doing – with respect to “Digital Fiat Currency”. The workshop was part of an ITU Focus Group Program on “Standardizing Digital Fiat Currency and […]

Glenbrook Payments Views Russ Jones

Payment Rails and Other Tales

In Glenbrook’s Payments Boot Camp™, we are always talking about payments systems – how they work, how they evolved, who uses them, who provides them, who profits from them, and how they are changing. So I was a little surprised when one of the participants approached me recently at break and asked if we would […]

Financial Inclusion

Welcome to CFSI EMERGE

Recently, I attended the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) EMERGE Financial Health Forum. The event, held June 6-8, 2018 in Los Angeles, is intended to help organizations working in financial services and financial health learn about current trends, insights, research, and policy updates. This was my first time attending and I wanted to share […]

Glenbrook Payments Views

5 Payments Challenges Facing Nonprofits

Tax Day has come and gone, and Americans have filed our returns and many of us even took the time to itemize our charitable contributions. According to the IRS, these contributions totaled over $390B in 2016 – a new record year of giving. While the rise in giving is welcome news, nonprofits also have to […]

Glenbrook Payments Views

Madness in Marijuana Payments

In my state’s recent midterm primary elections, I voted for the referendum on legalizing recreational marijuana. It reminded me of recent conversations I’ve had with payments professionals trying to tackle the issue of providing safe and secure financial services to marijuana-based businesses: One CEO said they have put serious effort into this market. They’ve worked […]

Payments Views

Amazon Go is the Uberization of Retail

I had a chance to visit the Amazon Go Store recently and wanted to speculate a bit on how it all works, from a payments perspective, and think about the implications. The new concept store, if you haven’t heard, eliminates the all-sacred checkout. Who cares about Apple Pay adoption rates or EMV transaction speed when […]

Cici Northup Credit Card Issuers Mobile Banking & Payments Personal Financial Management

Gen Z - The Next Payments Influencers

A country’s economy is made up of multiple generations. And while we in the payments industry have been watching (and are fascinated by) the financial behavior of the Millennials (e.g. excessive student debt, delayed home buying, preference for digital, etc.), hot on their heels is Generation Z. Currently characterized as self-aware, persistent, realistic, innovative and […]

Elizabeth McQuerry Fast Payments Mastercard NACHA TCH Visa

Innovation, Fragmentation in Cross-border and Real-time Payments

I’ve just returned from SIBOS 2017, the annual SWIFT convening of global transaction banks and all things associated with cross-border payment. And right now I’m in flight, heading to the payments industry grail otherwise known as Money 20/20 USA, getting ready to moderate a cool event on Wednesday morning. Oooph, this industry’s fall conference season […]