Management Uncategorized

Financial payoff from "soft" management

The latest McKinsey Quarterly describes research demonstrating that initiatives to address “soft” management issues—such as talent, culture, and values—may have a direct financial payoff. An analysis of hundreds of global companies has identified a strong correlation between organizational and financial performance. There seems to be an especially strong link between the bottom line and efforts […]

Back Office Conversion Payments News Treasury & Cash Management

Back Office Conversion: Opportunity for Merchants and Retailers

Check conversion via Back Office Conversion (BOC) has significant advantages, particularly over the Point of Purchase (POP) check conversion method, and is widely regarded as NACHAs reaction the merchant disappointment with POP transactions. Back Office Conversion benefits for merchants and retailers are as follows: Increased efficiency: Rather than converting checks one at a time at […]

Bryan Derman Writings

Watching the Anti-Money Laundering Risk in Prepaid Cards

Glenbrook’s Bryan Derman filed the following report after his participation in March 2007 on a panel titled “Hype or Reality – Anti-Money Laundering Risks from Prepaid Payment Products and What Can Be Done About Them” at the Spring Meeting of the American Bar Association’s Business Law Section in Washington, DC.

Treasury & Cash Management

Are you sitting on too much cash? What is your decapitalization strategy?

The spring issue of Strategy+Business wonders what corporations are going to do with the mountain of cash they've accumulated and evaluates options for spending/investing the cash: Until recently, excess liquidity seemed like a smart strategy. It was insurance against risk and provided capital for growth. But now, with balance sheets largely mended, cash flow volatility […]

Regulatory Environment

404 Compliance Back at Square One?

CFO.com reports that CFOs think the revised SEC and PCAOB standards for internal controls won't change anything because they cancel each other out. Mismatches between the internal-controls proposals of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board will keep compliance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act overly burdensome and costly, […]

Project Management

Technology Drives Key Finance Initiatives, Yet Most Technology Projects Fail

Types of Process Improvement Financial process improvement initiatives touch all aspects of transaction processing and reporting. TYPICAL FINANCE PROCESS IMPROVEMENT AREAS Working Capital Management Order-to-Cash Procure-to-Pay Payroll Risk Management enhancements Business Intelligence /Corporate Performance Management Regulatory compliance & efforts to automate compliance Enhanced reporting via XBRL Others Increasing Reliance on Technology Over the years, finance […]

Treasury & Cash Management

100 Most Influential People in Finance

The June issue of Treasury & Risk Mangement features the magazine's annual list of the 100 Most Influential People in Finance. The editors spoke with executives, bankers, economists, technology vendors and consultants to determine finance movers and shakers over the last 12 months. Finance leaders are recognized in the following categories: VISIONARY CFOs: Plotting the […]

Allen Weinberg Writings

Payment Card Chargebacks - It Pays for Merchants to Put Up a Fight!

By Allen Weinberg With online payment fraud now entering its second decade, recent fraud studies are somewhat encouraging and show that the percentage of revenue lost by eCommerce merchants to online fraud is declining. But these same studies also underscore that with the steady growth of online commerce and digital goods and services, the actual […]

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.

Scott Loftesness Writings

Responding to "Phishing" Attacks

By Scott Loftesness Phishing has emerged as the latest threat to the theft of personal information over the Internet. This Glenbrook ActionMap(SM) briefing for financial institutions examines the phishing threat, provides brief technology background on how fraudsters are successfully perpetrating phishing frauds, and recommends an ActionMap for institutions to consider for responding effectively to these […]

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 […]

Carol Coye Benson Writings

I Can Prove Who I Am: The Case for the Positive Identity Affidavit

By Carol Coye Benson How the Liberty Alliance and related digital identity protocols may solve the identity theft crisis.

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.