Contactless Debit Cards EMV George Peabody NFC Payments Views Point of Sale (POS) Security

Dispatch from the Smart Card Alliance Payments Conference

For those companies and individuals most committed to building the EMV and NFC ecosystems, the place to be February 3rd through 7th was Salt Lake City where the Smart Card Alliance hosted both an EMV Migration Forum meeting and its annual Payments Summit.  Over 525 people attended, representing the chip industry, payment processors, card brands, […]

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, […]

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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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 […]

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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 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 […]

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B2B Payments Erin McCune Payables Treasury & Cash Management

Is AribaPay a Game Changer for B2B Payments? Maybe. For now we have more questions than answers.

Recently Ariba/SAP and Discover announced that they intend to “transform” commercial payments. AribaPay is either the most significant B2B payments news in decades or just one more courageous entrant into the discouraging battlefield of B2B payments networks. We’re optimistic, and encouraged to see two strong players enter the fray.  We hope they will tackle head-on […]

Brazil Elizabeth McQuerry Global Payments Mobile Payments Regulatory Environment

The Bill from Ipanema: A Foundation for Brazilian Mobile Payments

I’m just back from a trip to Brazil and while I was there, the government introduced long-awaited legislation on mobile payments.  This is an important task as Brazil now has 265 million mobile subscribers  – more than 1 per inhabitant. Needless to say, the machinations of politics kicked off immediately and there will undoubtedly be […]

Conferences & Meetings EMV George Peabody Mobile Technology Point of Sale (POS) Security Technology

EMV, Authentication and Bank Disintermediation in the U.S. Market: What’s a Bank To Do?

Merchants and terminals were a key focus at two major payments conferences this week:  NACHA and CARTES.  The issue of EMV in the U.S. and the high cost for merchants to replace their terminals was raised repeatedly. Estimates for the cost of replacement in the U.S. market vary widely: we’ve heard numbers from $2 billion […]