For a front row seat on payment innovation you have plenty of choices. Yes, Stripe and Square are based in the tech hotbed of the Bay Area and it’s tempting to stare at their success. But a look around the world reveals the evolutionary breadth of how payments are made, regulated, and brought to market. India and China alone reveal how remarkably different approaches can scale to enormous dimensions.
There’s no better guide to what’s happening in payments around the world than Glenbrook’s own Carol Coye Benson. In this episode, Carol and George discuss her new book Global Payments and the Fintech Innovations Changing the Industry.
Carol spent much of the last decade traveling throughout the world consulting to organizations on the impact of technology and business models on national payment infrastructure. The book is informed by the scores of discussions she’s had with tech executives, the leadership of development banks, government agencies, and fintech start-ups.
Take a listen to why she wrote the book, some of what she found, and her take on some of the big questions still to be answered.
VIDEO: here’s how Carol introduces the book:
Listen to the Payments on Fire® podcast:
George, founder of Glenbrook’s Payments on Fire® podcast, is a 20-year payments industry veteran with a background in founding and running IT-based businesses to help clients develop payments strategies. During his 10 years at Glenbrook, George focused heavily on consulting in competitive positioning, technology investment road mapping, and innovation. Before joining Glenbrook, George led teams at Aberdeen Group, Mercator Advisory Group, and several other companies he founded, including Payment Pathways, RapidNet, and DigiFlite. George retired in 2024, but his contributions to Glenbrook live on through the 175+ episodes of Payments on Fire he recorded during his tenure.