We (Really) Can’t Stop Talking About Tokenization: A 2025 Update
Glenbrook's Chris Uriarte unpacks network tokenization updates from Visa and Mastercard.
We (Really) Can’t Stop Talking About Tokenization: A 2025 Update
Card Networks
Visa Payments Forum Deep Dive: Visa Flexible Credential
Visa Payments Forum Deep Dive: Visa Flexible Credential
Glenbrook's Samantha Gordon unpacks the Visa Flexible Credential, one of many new products announced by Visa at their annual Payments Forum earlier this month.
Payments Post #11: Closing the Loop: Cap None?
Payments Post #11: Closing the Loop: Cap None?
This month's Payments Post focuses on the announcement that Capital One intends to acquire Discover and considers the perspectives of the various ecosystem participants it affects.
EMV’s First Phase in the US at an End; the Wait for Phase 2 Begins
EMV’s First Phase in the US at an End; the Wait for Phase 2 Begins
Despite our industry’s preoccupation with mobile payments, here at Glenbrook we’ve been keeping a sharp eye on the state of the U.S. EMV® migration. Let’s call the U.S. approach, based on contact EMV only with no PINs on our credit cards, EMV Phase 1. That’s where...
Two Paths for Faster
Two Paths for Faster
The always-interesting Federal Reserve Bank Chicago Payments Symposium just closed, and predictably, a lot of the discussion (and argument!) was around “faster” – the evolving progress of the United States towards improvements in our payments systems. I was...
Scheming and Processing – Faster
Scheming and Processing – Faster
Last week’s news that MasterCard was exploring an investment or outright acquisition of VocaLink really lit up the “News” channel on our Slack system at Glenbrook. For those unfamiliar, VocaLink is a company currently owned by 17 large U.K. financial institutions,...
Fake Out – You Can’t Put Your Card in that EMV Slot
Fake Out – You Can’t Put Your Card in that EMV Slot
Visa’s CEO recently reported that more than 750,000 locations, representing 17% of the U.S. face-to-face card-accepting merchant base, are accepting EMV chip cards. While everyone in the industry agrees that it will be quite a while before the numbers reach...
EMV’s Not-Very-Even Distribution
EMV’s Not-Very-Even Distribution
At our Glenbrook Payments Boot Camps, we often quote futurist and novelist William Gibson’s 1993 remark that “the future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed” in order to demonstrate that different payment methods take varying amounts of time to...
Mobile Payments – What Entrepreneurs Need to Know
Mobile Payments – What Entrepreneurs Need to Know
Recorded about a month ago by VC firm Matrix Partners, Glenbrook's Scott Loftesness and Dana Stalder of Matrix Partners discuss the evolution of mobile payments, the business model failure of Softcard, and other topics including: The 8+ year journey to ApplePay...
Adventures in Attribution – The Apple vs. MCX Dialog
Adventures in Attribution – The Apple vs. MCX Dialog
Like many payments industry insiders, we have been following the recent impassioned industry dialog about the relative merits of Apple Pay and MCX’s CurrentC wallet with a combination of amusement and despair. The barbs and accusations being exchanged by the rival...