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.

April 25, 2024

April 12, 2024

March 14, 2024

February 5, 2024

February 2, 2024

Samantha Gordon

Demystifying Payments Orchestration: Part 2 - Orchestration in Practice

Recap Earlier this week, we started to unpack one of the buzziest terms in payments: orchestration. As we define it, Orchestration Platforms facilitate a merchant’s multi-acquirer setup, in addition to providing services across the areas of transaction optimization, smart routing, and connections to multiple providers (acquirers, non-card payment methods, and related services such as risk […]

January 30, 2024

September 11, 2023

Payments Post #6: Glenbrook's August Roundup

Chris Uriarte and Justin Pituch put their heads together to sift through the August news in search of a broader storyline. Looking back at headlines surrounding merchant surcharging, fee backlash, and Adyen’s lackluster H1 performance, we noted an underlying theme of broad downward pressure on the cost of merchant processing. Companies like Toast and Adyen […]

August 11, 2023

July 10, 2023

June 26, 2023

June 7, 2023

Payments Post #4: Glenbrook's May Roundup

Welcome to the May installment of Payments Post, where we’re highlighting the news that got Glenbrook talking. The common thread that emerged in May was the American consumer. We observed a burst of news highlighting technology reshaping how American consumers make purchases and verify their identity. At the same time, other articles underscored how American […]

May 4, 2023

Payments Post #3: Glenbrook's April Roundup

Welcome back to Payments Post. Last month’s edition was all about banks; this month’s is about “paying by bank”. Or to be a bit more semantically precise, account-to-account (A2A) payments. We were particularly interested in Visa’s Visa+ initiative, iDEAL’s apparent pan-European future, and Plaid’s upcoming payouts product. Regular contributor Justin Pituch digs in this week […]

April 7, 2023

Payments Post #2: Glenbrook's March Roundup

Surprise! We spent a lot of the past month thinking about banks. March confronted us with stumbling blocks for fintechs and their sponsor banks, a bank-led battle for the checkout page, and a clearer view of the path forward for U.S. fast payments. Let’s dive into it in this second edition of Payments Post, our […]

March 29, 2023

Examining Risk and Resiliency in Banking Relationships (..and no, we’re not just talking about bank failures)

On Monday a few weeks back, a member of a client’s executive team gave me a call: “We really need to speed up the project to find another bank sponsor.” That was followed by a call from another client later that day: “We’ve been thinking about what it would take to form a relationship with […]

March 10, 2023

Drew

Only Fools Rush In: A Thoughtful Approach to Embedding Financial Services

It is an undeniable trend that an increasing number of businesses are embedding financial services into their products. Those that have embarked on this journey often experience multiple benefits if the new services solve an existing problem for their customer base, but it requires taking a thoughtful and informed approach to avoid negative downstream complications.  […]

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?

read more
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?

read more
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?

read more

Glenbrook Payments Boot Camp®

Register for the next Glenbrook Payments Boot Camp®

An intensive and comprehensive overview of the payments industry.

Train your Team

Customized, private Payments Boot Camps tailored to meet your team’s unique needs.

OnDemand Modules

Recorded, one-hour videos covering a broad array of payments concepts.

Glenbrook Press

Comprehensive books that detail the systems and innovations shaping the payments industry.

Launch, improve & grow your payments business