Economies, global and domestic, are both interconnected and interdependent. Routine perturbations like economic slowdowns and recessions illuminate those dependencies as pain in one sector spreads to an adjacent one. COVID-19, and the global economic, social, and political reaction to it, put these linkages in high relief. The COVID-19 pandemic’s disruptive impact on global trade, national […]
Point of Sale Domain – The Pain at the POS
The POS Domain is Synonymous with the Retail Industry The POS Commerce domain is the land of brick and mortar retail, representing the majority of retail activity. Despite the steady double digit annual growth of the Remote Commerce domain, the POS Commerce domain was responsible for some 84% of retail sales in 2019. That said, […]
The Payments Industry Impact of COVID-19
Series Introduction COVID-19’s impact on the U.S. payments industry and domestic economy is profound. Multiple reports from the U.S. Department of Commerce, merchant acquirers and PSPs indicate the extent of the pain even at this early stage of this pandemic-induced recession. For the over thirty million U.S. citizens suddenly without jobs and income, with many […]
Merchant Payments Operations: Organization
In Kavita Jiandani’s post Assessing a Merchant’s Payments Operations, she introduced Glenbrook’s methodology for our in-depth assessment of a merchant’s payments operations. In her introductory piece, Kavita highlights the major Key Assessment Areas we evaluate during each engagement. In this continuation, we examine the impact of the payments organization and the company’s “money team.” How a […]
Contactless Cards to Pressure the Open Loop Pays
Now that the contactless card form factor is coming to the U.S. in a systemic fashion, I thought it timely to discuss the competition between these cards and the open loop wallets from Apple, Google, and Samsung. A Push for the Pays Juniper Research released a report on January 29, 2019 based on its survey […]
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 we are today. While EMV technology has been settled […]
Payments 2017 – One Month In
Business evolution—whether it’s automotive, bioscience, or in the payments industry—proceeds along a predictable path of incremental improvements and optimization. Until it doesn’t and a step function takes effect. Last year was sleepy compared to what we can expect during the next eleven months. 2016 was characterized by the more familiar path, through themes set in […]
The ITU Digital Financial Services Focus Group Wraps Up
Last week in Geneva, the ITU wrapped up a two-year project – the “Focus Group on Digital Financial Services and Financial Inclusion”. Several hundred organizations and people participated in the Focus Group, which produced research papers and policy recommendations on a wide variety of topics. The papers are available on the Focus Group website. Glenbrook’s […]
Money20/20 Wrap-up
We’ve seen a lot of innovation in payment initiation over the last few years. Apple Pay, Android Pay, Walmart Pay and their like have filled Payments News headline stories. But this year, at Money20/20, consumer-facing innovation downshifted to a lower gear. And that’s a good thing. Getting Down to Work “Mobile” news cooled because the […]
What Blocks the Blockchain
Given the high rate of press releases and articles on fintech applications of blockchain technology – and the growing number of financial institutions expressing interest in its potential – I’ve been considering this high signal to noise ratio. A few thoughts: Hype cycle inflection point We are, hopefully, cresting the top of the blockchain hype […]