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COVID-19

We Are All Connected – Payments in the Post-COVID Era

By George Peabody on August 21 2020

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 […]

Glenbrook

Point of Sale Domain – The Pain at the POS

By George Peabody on May 27 2020

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, […]

Domains

The Payments Industry Impact of COVID-19

By George Peabody on May 19 2020

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 […]

Glenbrook

Merchant Payments Operations: Organization

By George Peabody on May 4 2020

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 […]

Card Payments

Contactless Cards to Pressure the Open Loop Pays

By George Peabody on February 11 2019

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 […]

Apple

Payments 2017 – One Month In

By George Peabody on January 31 2017

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 […]

Allen Weinberg

The ITU Digital Financial Services Focus Group Wraps Up

By George Peabody on December 14 2016

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 […]

Apple

Money20/20 Wrap-up

By George Peabody on October 27 2016

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 […]

Bitcoin

What Blocks the Blockchain

By George Peabody on April 14 2016

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 […]