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.

October 11, 2023

Decoding a cross-border business payment to Rwanda: detailing the journey, the costs, and our observations

By Elizabeth McQuerry, Cici Northup, & Victor Malu   Introduction Glenbrook is based in the U.S., but we work on projects around the world; our global practice often supports clients in emerging markets. From time to time, for more formal proposal processes, we are asked to provide a corresponding bid security. For anyone not familiar […]

October 6, 2023

October 2, 2023

Payments Post #7: Glenbrook's September Roundup - Sibos, India, and a Connected Future

This month, Payments Post is going global. We’ll jump to Canada as we explore themes from Sibos and then to India to take a look at a leader in next-generation national payment schemes. We’re joined by Cici Northup, Associate Partner in our Global practice, alongside our usual curator Justin Pituch. Sibos highlights global payment aspirations […]

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 […]

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 […]

March 18, 2021

Laura

Where is Financial Inclusion in the U.S. Today?

At Glenbrook, international financial inclusion work has long been a major focus area. Given the challenges racial equity concerns raises for the U.S., Glenbrook as a firm has returned our focus to financial inclusion here at home. To begin that examination, we look at the state of financial inclusion in the US and what are […]

February 26, 2021

July 31, 2020

A stack of dollar bills and calculator on a calendar

COVID-19 and the Income Domain

The Income Domain consists of payments to individuals for salary, benefits, rebates, and expense reimbursements. In the U.S., these payments are made primarily via direct deposit through NACHA’s ACH system, and to a lesser extent, paper checks and payroll cards. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to widespread business shutdown, and as a result, caused mass […]

June 22, 2020

May 27, 2020

A merchant runs a credit card at their POS

Point of Sale Domain - The Pain at the POS

The POS Domain is Synonymous with the Retail Industry The POS Commerce domain is the land of brick and mortar retail, representing the majority of retail activity. Despite the steady double digit annual growth of the Remote Commerce domain, the POS Commerce domain was responsible for  some 84% of retail sales in 2019. That said, […]

April 30, 2020

April 16, 2020

May 1, 2019

Elizabeth McQuerry

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 […]

July 26, 2018

Recent Payment Views

Payments Post #17: Cutting Costs

Payments Post #17: Cutting Costs

In this Payments Post, we discuss the DOJ bringing a lawsuit against Visa that alleges the company operates an illegal monopoly in the debit card space. Does the argument have merit in our non-legal minds? And if so, what could the DOJ’s move mean for an evolving payments landscape?

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Payments Post #17: Cutting Costs

Payments Post #16: The Apple Drops

It’s time for another edition of Payments Post and (surprise!) we’re thinking about the Visa Flexible Credential again. Now that Apple has plans to open up the NFC chip and Secure Element to third party developers, we’re scratching our heads. Who benefits from this newfound NFC access? What opportunities can fintechs unlock? How will conventional financial institutions react? And to tie it all back, does the VFC still matter?

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Payments Post #17: Cutting Costs

Payments Post #15: BNPL Battles

In this month’s Payments Post, we revisit the prime use case for Visa Flexible Credential (VFC): BNPL. How are buy now pay later providers positioning themselves in the current environment, how are consumers using their tools, and how are regulators and issuers responding?

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