2015 has been an exciting, tumultuous year for payments. Our once "under the radar" industry now makes for daily headline news with stories and commentary (some breathtakingly uninformed) on new ways to pay, M&A activity, regulatory actions, competitive...
You may have heard about the Reserve Bank of India’s decision to create a new category of “payments banks”. Recently, the Reserve Bank of India approved 11 applicant institutions (out of 41 who had applied) to start the process of becoming licensed. The group...
Message delay from phone to watch – I can hear my phone signaling a message has arrived but it takes a while to show up on my watch You have to remember to turn both watch and iPhone back on after being in airplane mode, even if set to “mirror phone” Only black...
Over the past few weeks I’ve had a chance to talk about the prospects for faster payments in the U.S. with representatives from both The Clearing House and the Fed. Both groups, as I’m sure you know, are actively working the space: the Fed with its...
Smart. Very Smart. I applaud Square’s introduction of “$Cashtags” for a number of reasons. First, some of you may know that I am a bit of a nut when it comes to brand names in payments – I think it is incredibly important that the sending and receiving party both...
I read the Facebook announcement of payments through Messenger with interest, and just a touch of “about time”! After all, there is nothing more social than sending money to family and friends. And although much attention is paid in the press to the...
The Federal Reserve’s recent announcement that it would not build a new payment rail for processing faster payments created some disappointment for many who are unsatisfied with our country’s current payments system capabilities. In a welcome move, The...
These are some personal observations on Apple Pay, after an exciting week of reading announcements from Apple and reactions from bloggers. (If you want a Glenbrook business view on the announcement, read Wednesday's post by my partner George Peabody.) For several...
I was delighted and fascinated to see that the Gates Foundation has issued a “Grand Challenge” on enabling universal acceptance of mobile money payments. The Foundation’s previous best-known challenges have been in healthcare, notably for toilets and condoms, so...
Faster Payments May Get Here Faster than We Thought Some of you may know that I’ve been an ardent advocate for a faster-payments infrastructure in the United States. I’ve been closely following the Fed’s process towards payments system improvements. On Thursday in...
