Card Acceptance

EMV’s First Phase in the US at an End; the Wait for Phase 2 Begins

By George Peabody on May 23 2017

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 […]

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 […]

Allen Weinberg

Farewell 2015

By George Peabody on December 27 2015

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 dynamics, security, and its future evolution. In consumer payments alone, 2015 was the year that things finally got […]

Card Acceptance

EMV’s Not-Very-Even Distribution

By George Peabody on December 7 2015

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 become commonplace. Over the last year and more, most boot camp attendees […]

Bitcoin

It’s About the Blockchain

By George Peabody on October 6 2015

We’ve been working with bitcoin at Glenbrook for a few years now, teaching about it in our boot camps, and holding one-day workshops on math-based currencies and blockchain technology. I have one conclusion. The focus of the evolution of digital money is shifting. Where that evolution will take us is still unknown. To borrow a […]

Apple

EMV – Necessary, Insufficient, and our Lasting PR Risk

By George Peabody on August 27 2015

We are just a month away from the October EMV liability shift and the transition is, to no one’s surprise, mostly incomplete. EMV credit card issuance is expected to be at just 50% by the end of this year. Point of sale hardware upgrades at major retailers may be in place but the long tail of SMB […]

Allen Weinberg

Disruption and Innovation at the Point of Sale

By George Peabody on April 24 2015

Surprising disruptions and unanticipated consequences abound in payments. Sometimes, it’s just a rule change that makes all the difference. In 2001, the NACHA rule enabling ad hoc web debits was put in place, primarily at the behest of banks who wanted to make it easier for their cardholders to pay their credit card bills. Great […]