I was so preoccupied with NACHA Payments 2008 that I almost missed this special report from The Economist on the future of banking. The emphasis is investment banking and the credit crisis, rather than payments, but it is very interesting nonetheless.

[excerpt from The Economist, emphasis mine:]

Modern finance is under attack. Yet the banking system has done much better than it is given credit for

BANKS have endured a brutal nine months since credit markets froze in August. Losses and write-downs already total $335 billion; many of their best businesses have disappeared. In developed economies, almost all banks are facing economic and regulatory headwinds that will cut revenues and jobs. Yet the biggest danger facing Western finance is not a fall in its earning power but a loss of faith in how it works.

Read more in the The Economist special report on banking:

• Banking's crisis
• Securitisation and its flaws
• Managing risk
• Accounting standards
• Paying the banker
• Banking management
• Regulators and the cycle
• Spain's better way
• The future of banking
• The next crisis
• Audio interview