As new forms of digital payments begin to take hold, the old assumptions no longer work. What does it mean to issue a card when there is no card? How can transactions be risk-managed when payments credentials are masked and scrambled by design? And what is the impact on the loyalty and reward programs that are designed to depend on the presence of card data?

Those are the questions we asked ourselves when we set out to design Glenbrook’s new Payments Insights Workshop: Digital Payments. But what exactly are digital payments?

I first noticed American Express use the term “digital payments” in 2011 to describe a category of payment-related technologies that went beyond the traditional issuance of a card. They described P2P transactions between accounts as an example of a digital payment transaction.

More recently, Visa and MasterCard have embraced the term as a way to describe their push to store payment credentials in the cloud with tokens, instead of cards, being used to initiate payment. The networks even talk about their token-related services as “digital enablement” services. And their “checkout” products, of course, are a big part of token delivery.

We’ve structured the Payments Insights Workshop: Digital Payments to break down this new segment of the industry and explore the implications of the shift from physical to digital payments instruments. Here’s what we plan to discuss:

• Digital Payments Overview – Provides an introduction to digital payments and puts them into market context. Why are digital payments happening now and not five years ago? We’ll look at the role of tokens, authentication, and cloud — and share our overall taxonomy of the space.
• Tokenization Fundamentals – You can’t understand digital payments if you don’t understand tokenization. It’s as simple as that. We’ll start with the key tokenization concepts and take a look at the two leading approaches –– security tokens and EMVCo payment tokens. We’ll explore the models, look at the flows, and describe the roles and the data elements. We will also share current thinking on how tokenization concepts might be applied in non-card payment systems.
• POS Mobile Wallets – POS Mobile Wallets are the first major deployment of EMVCo payment tokens. We will do a complete tear down on Apple Pay and then use that as a point of comparison against Android Pay, Samsung Pay, and Chase Pay to illustrate similarities and differences. Given the recent announcements at Money 20/20, we’ll also be exploring CurrentC (MCX) and the rise of NFC-enabled banking apps.
• Checkout Wallets – Checkout Wallets are the second shoe dropping in the shift to digital payments. We’ll take a look at Visa Checkout and its underlying security model, as well as MasterCard MasterPass and Amex Express Checkout. We’ll share how they work, how they differ, and their likely evolution. Checkout Wallets are distinctly different than the old digital wallets as alternative forms of payment –– so you may be surprised.
• Digital Payments Enablers – For online merchants, the rise of digital payments enablers has represented a sea change in the approach to online payment acceptance. Here we’ll compare Braintree, Stripe, and WePay and take a look at what they do, where they fit, and why they represent the next wave in payment acceptance. Our exploration will include a special emphasis on how these providers address the needs of ‘Marketplace’ providers.
• P2P Mobile Apps – The shift to digital payments can also be seen in P2P Mobile Apps. This module will look at the general model and economics found in these types of systems. We’ll compare the underlying transaction model of Venmo, Square Cash, and Facebook Messenger––and share our perspective on P2P Mobile Apps in the developing world. This will include a case study on the evolution of the M-Pesa system in Kenya.
• What Comes Next – The day will finish with a look at In-App payments and Buy Buttons, both important new developments that play right to the shift to digital payments. As part of What Comes Next, we will also share our thesis in how digital payments fit against the emerging Internet of Things.

We’ve put together a great agenda and I am looking forward to sharing our thinking at Glenbrook’s next Payments Insight Workshop: Digital Payments.

The next session is December 3rd, 2015 in Palo Alto, California as a standalone workshop or as a companion day to our next Payments Boot Camp on December 1st and 2nd. Please join us if you can.

For more information and to register: https://glenbrook.com/course-schedule/

Questions? Contact bootcamp@glenbrook.com