Erin McCune

Dispatch from the 2020 U.S. Women in Payments Symposium, February 10-11, 2020

By Erin McCune on February 12 2020

This Women in Payments event has been going on for at least 5 years and this was the first time I attended — I regret that it took so long! Hats off to Kristy Duncan and her team for putting together a substantive event with a refreshing mix of industry insight and professional development and […]

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 […]

Bill Payment & Presentment

The eGovernment – ePayment Conundrum

By Erin McCune on September 28 2015

The interdependence of eGovernment and government ePayments is yet another classic payment chicken and egg challenge. As we work with governments to build their electronic payment strategies we sometimes need to temper their expectations given this all-too-familiar challenge. There have to be enough digitally delivered government services to warrant digital payment infrastructure, but you also […]

Bill Payment & Presentment

The Global Struggle of Government Payments

By Erin McCune on September 2 2015

Over the last year, I’ve been focused on government payments – a compelling mashup of traditional bill pay and multi-channel retail requirements against an intriguing backdrop of policy, economic, and political interactions. Although many countries have made solid progress implementing eGovernment initiatives (UN E-Government Survey 2014), the level and sophistication of ePayments implementation lags the […]

Bill Payment & Presentment

Sympathy for the Biller – the Unsung Masters of Payments Complexity

By Erin McCune on June 2 2015

At Glenbrook we take pride in, and place great importance on, our historical focus on end users: consumers, enterprises and small businesses that make and receive payments. Recently, we’ve been working with and thinking about billers – the unsung masters of payments complexity. Consider the table below. What other players in the industry accept as […]

Apple

Mobile Payment Unintended Consequences (or How I Locked Myself Out of the House, Again)

By Erin McCune on January 15 2015

I am writing this post sitting on the front steps of our house in San Francisco. I have locked myself out three times recently, more than I have in the past three decades. Is it dementia? No, I blame mobile payments. Last summer I bought a case for my iPhone that had handy little pockets […]

Bitcoin

Back from the Future: Bitcoin2014 Musings

By Erin McCune on May 20 2014

Last week I was in Amsterdam for the second annual conference hosted by the The Bitcoin Foundation. As a strategist and advocate for ever-better payment solutions, I was very curious to learn how the Bitcoin protocol and its emerging enablers can address some of the most intractable challenges facing payments. For the most part, payments […]

B2B Payments

There Is No Such Thing As An International Wire

By Erin McCune on May 15 2014

As globalization increases, businesses of all sizes buy goods and services from overseas suppliers and turn to new customers in overseas markets to drive growth. As a result, the demand for cross-border transactions steadily increases. The vast majority of these transactions takes place through correspondent banking relationships and collectively described as “international wires.” The reality […]

Bitcoin

Transactions Get Smart

By Carol Coye Benson on May 9 2014

Glenbrook held a great “Innovations in Payments” workshop this week – a group which energetically debated many topics, including Bitcoin (of course), tokenization, beacons, authentication, wearables, interoperability and mobile ad spend. As I reflect on the day, it seems that an interesting theme emerged.  Many of the topics were about payment transactions that are – or […]

B2B Payments

Money2020: Impressions & Observations

By Erin McCune on October 14 2013

I’ve nearly recovered from the payments overload that was Money2020 last week in Las Vegas – it was initially exhilarating, then incredibly exhausting, but I had a fantastic time. Here’s my admittedly subjective take based on having attended only two sessions (one of which I moderated) and stood in the back for only part of […]