Payments Views

Carol Coye Benson

Celebrate and Congratulate Carol Benson

By Allen Weinberg on June 22 2020

Carol Benson, one of my fellow founders of Glenbrook Partners, is retiring at the end of June, following our other founder, Scott Loftesness, who retired four years ago. It seems like only a few years ago (certainly less than 20) that the entire company fit in one car with room for my dog sharing the […]

Glenbrook

The P2P Domain Gets a Big COVID Push

By Bryan Derman on June 18 2020

We have seen relatively immediate and significant effects in payments within the P2P domain, particularly during the economic shutdown, but it will likely persist beyond it. We expect that the convenience and safety of electronic P2P transfers will guide many users toward a permanent behavior change. Further, cost barriers are falling away: the cost of […]

Billers

Will Billers Push Harder for Digital Payments under COVID-19?

By Sam Levitt on June 16 2020

As a result of the sweeping stay-at-home orders and shutting down of nonessential businesses, Americans are facing record unemployment. Consumers are struggling financially and those who were living paycheck to paycheck, and many others, are having trouble paying their bills. These individuals have to make difficult decisions and prioritize their spending, which often means groceries […]

Glenbrook

Remote Commerce Domain Takes Center Stage

By Yvette Bohanan on June 4 2020

Expansion Under COVID-19 The Remote Commerce domain is home to e-commerce, many mobile payments, and the venerable mail-order, telephone-order method (MOTO). The growth in transaction volume in this domain has been nothing short of phenomenal accounting for a: 56 percent of overall U.S. retail sales growth in 2019 47 percent increase in U.S. sales forecasted […]

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 […]

Glenbrook

Regulatory Analysis of KYC for Covid-19 in Emerging Markets

By Zak Kazzaz on April 30 2020

Download a PDF version of this document here. Read our introductory discussion here. Regulatory Background The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) sets global standards for combating money laundering (ML) and the financing of terrorism (TF) and proliferation. While its recommendations are not binding, they are broadly accepted by regulators as guidelines for national rules.  FATF […]

Glenbrook

Merchant Payment Operations: Partner Performance

By Kavita Jiandani on April 6 2020

Continuing on our theme of Assessing a Merchant’s Payments Operations, in this post let’s focus on the critical aspect of Partner Performance. The goal here is to gauge if the merchant’s payment providers are good partners. Having the right set of payments processing partners is a critical factor that can take a merchant’s payments operations […]