Glenbrook

Payment Rails and Other Tales

By Russ Jones on July 17 2018

In Glenbrook’s Payments Boot Camp™, we are always talking about payments systems – how they work, how they evolved, who uses them, who provides them, who profits from them, and how they are changing. So I was a little surprised when one of the participants approached me recently at break and asked if we would […]

Financial Inclusion

Welcome to CFSI EMERGE

By Cici Northup on July 9 2018

Recently, I attended the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) EMERGE Financial Health Forum. The event, held June 6-8, 2018 in Los Angeles, is intended to help organizations working in financial services and financial health learn about current trends, insights, research, and policy updates. This was my first time attending and I wanted to share […]

Glenbrook

5 Payments Challenges Facing Nonprofits

By Lello Gebisa on June 11 2018

Tax Day has come and gone, and Americans have filed our returns and many of us even took the time to itemize our charitable contributions. According to the IRS, these contributions totaled over $390B in 2016 – a new record year of giving. While the rise in giving is welcome news, nonprofits also have to […]

Glenbrook

Madness in Marijuana Payments

By Beth Horowitz Steel on April 2 2018

In my state’s recent midterm primary elections, I voted for the referendum on legalizing recreational marijuana. It reminded me of recent conversations I’ve had with payments professionals trying to tackle the issue of providing safe and secure financial services to marijuana-based businesses: One CEO said they have put serious effort into this market. They’ve worked […]

Payments Views

Amazon Go is the Uberization of Retail

By Russ Jones on March 1 2018

I had a chance to visit the Amazon Go Store recently and wanted to speculate a bit on how it all works, from a payments perspective, and think about the implications. The new concept store, if you haven’t heard, eliminates the all-sacred checkout. Who cares about Apple Pay adoption rates or EMV transaction speed when […]

Cici Northup

Gen Z – The Next Payments Influencers

By Cici Northup on January 18 2018

A country’s economy is made up of multiple generations. And while we in the payments industry have been watching (and are fascinated by) the financial behavior of the Millennials (e.g. excessive student debt, delayed home buying, preference for digital, etc.), hot on their heels is Generation Z. Currently characterized as self-aware, persistent, realistic, innovative and […]

Elizabeth McQuerry

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 […]