Payments Views » Payments Views

Innovation, Fragmentation in Cross-border and Real-time Payments

By Elizabeth McQuerry on October 22 2017

I’ve just returned from SIBOS 2017, the annual SWIFT convening of global transaction banks and all things associated with cross-border payment. And right now I’m in flight, heading to the payments industry grail otherwise known as Money 20/20 USA, getting ready to moderate a cool event on Wednesday morning. Oooph, this industry’s fall conference season […]

Card Payments

Brands Blur as Digital Payments Flourish

By Russ Jones on October 19 2017

Remember the good old days? You carried a Visa card and you could use it anywhere Visa was accepted. Visa logo on the front of the card; Visa acceptance mark on the merchant’s window. To the cardholder, it was a Visa transaction; to the merchant it was a Visa transaction. No confusion. PayPal broke that […]

Cici Northup

Lowering the Cost of Remittance – the Southern African Development Community (SADC)

By Cici Northup on October 11 2017

There was an estimated $55b billion in cross-border remittances in 2015. But how much of that, per transaction, arrived in the wallet of the intended recipient? Unfortunately, not as much as many of us would hope. The cost of remittances is quite high with the average cost worldwide nearing 8% in 2015. And in some […]

Cici Northup

Poor, Wanting and Without: The Payments Gap

By Cici Northup on July 26 2017

Over the past several years, I have focused my time and energy on projects aimed at increasing financial inclusion in developing countries to help alleviate poverty. I feel fortunate to work in this arena; I find it both rewarding and interesting. Recently, as part of a project, I interviewed a number of people working on […]

Amazon

Is Amazon Best-in-Class for Online Payments?

By Russ Jones on July 19 2017

Amazon.com is in the news all the time with its continued expansion of markets and fulfillment centers, its focus on innovation and long term R&D, and, recently, some very non-intuitive acquisitions. It’s easy to get swept up in their story. But when a company gets as big and powerful as Amazon has become, it’s helpful […]

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 […]

Carol Coye Benson

Two Remarkable Women – And the Mobile Payments Systems They Have Built

By Carol Coye Benson on March 30 2017

I had the good fortune last week to be part of the Glenbrook team attending the FinTechStage Inclusion Forum in Jakarta. Happily, among the attendees were two women I have known for several years: Maha Bahou of the Central Bank of Jordan and Carolina Trivelli of Pagos Digitales Peruanos. Peru and Jordan are two of […]

Financial Regulators

Demonetization Roulette: India’s unusual approach to creating a cashless economy

By Shiv Vadivelalagan on March 28 2017

On November 8, 2016, India cancelled 86% of its currency in circulation with a four-hour notice and the move pushed India into a severe currency shortage. In a country where 98% of all consumer payments are in cash, this prolonged currency shortage carries risks: economic destabilization in the short term and irrevocable damages to the […]

Banking Industry

Demystifying India’s Digital Payment Infrastructure

By Shiv Vadivelalagan on March 23 2017

There is a growing curiosity about India’s payments systems. These systems, and their role in the “India stack”, have been the subject of many articles speculating their importance in shaping India’s future. Despite this attention, there is still considerable confusion about what these initiatives are, and how they interact with each other. This led me […]

Card Fraud

MRC Las Vegas 2017: It’s Not Just About Transaction Risk

By Chris Uriarte on March 20 2017

This past week, over 1400 payments professionals convened in Las Vegas for the annual Merchant Risk Council (MRC) conference, an event that I’ve had the pleasure of attending for over a decade. While merchant fraud detection and risk management continue to be the core theme of the conference, traditional payment service providers had a strong […]