Bitcoin

A Dollar by Any Other Name: Thoughts on Digital Fiat Currency

By Carol Coye Benson on July 26 2018

What are central banks – and governments – going to do about cryptocurrencies? I was in New York last week to better understand what central bankers are thinking about   – and doing – with respect to “Digital Fiat Currency”.   The workshop was part of an ITU Focus Group Program on “Standardizing Digital Fiat Currency and its Applications”.  Central […]

Carol Coye Benson

Two Remarkable Women – And the Mobile Payments Systems They Have Built

By Carol Coye Benson on March 30 2017

I had the good fortune last week to be part of the Glenbrook team attending the FinTechStage Inclusion Forum in Jakarta. Happily, among the attendees were two women I have known for several years: Maha Bahou of the Central Bank of Jordan and Carolina Trivelli of Pagos Digitales Peruanos. Peru and Jordan are two of […]

Carol Coye Benson

“I know Scott!”

By Carol Coye Benson on October 31 2016

Our co-founder, partner and friend, Scott Loftesness, is formally retiring from Glenbrook today.  I can’t begin to say how much I will miss him – as a colleague, as a mentor, and as an endless source of ideas and insights.  Glenbrook is today what it is largely because of Scott’s vision for the firm: a […]

B2B

Two Paths for Faster

By Carol Coye Benson on October 17 2016

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 particularly interested in hearing other people’s views on the outlook for this in our country. I came […]

Banking

Five Answers – Sort of – to the Big Questions on Blockchain and Bitcoin

By Carol Coye Benson on May 4 2016

I’m back from two days at Consensus 2016 in NYC, and reporting as promised into my investigation of the Five Big Questions. 1. Bitcoin technology: will the problems (versions, processing time, scalability) be  resolved? Yes. My belief that we are all writing this off too soon in favor of “all things blockchain” was reinforced. Glenn […]

Banking

Five Big Questions on Bitcoin and Blockchain

By Carol Coye Benson on April 28 2016

I’m headed to New York next week for the CoinDesk Consensus conference…”Making Blockchain Real”. I’m going because I’m trying to get my head around some big questions. I normally have a sense, even with new things, of the path forward. Not in this case! Here are the questions I’m thinking about: Bitcoin technology: will the […]

Accounting

Really Big Questions in Payments

By Carol Coye Benson on January 19 2016

Glenbrook’s Allen Weinberg wrote a few weeks ago about his view of the Grand Challenges in payments…. a daunting list, and one I agree with.  But I want to extend his discussion on one of his challenges:  “Realigned value chain economics in a push payment world”, and add two more: “What is the proper role […]

Authentication

India – A Good Approach for Financial Inclusion

By Carol Coye Benson on September 15 2015

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 includes telcos, non-bank financial institutions, retailers, entrepreneurs and the Department of […]

Apple

The Ten Most Annoying Things About Apple Watch

By Carol Coye Benson on May 29 2015

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 watch faces? […]

ACH

Faster Now Faster?

By Carol Coye Benson on May 5 2015

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 ongoing Payments Systems Improvement initiative, now with a number of task […]