Glenbrook

Assessing a Merchant’s Payments Operations

By Kavita Jiandani on November 8 2019

I am often asked if Glenbrook Partners is a payments education company, and if I teach. My answer to both is yes. Our education programs are designed to give attendees a stronger payments foundation on which to build and refine their corporate strategies, product development efforts, and operational functions. We’re also very much a payments […]

Glenbrook

Federated Bank ID: Implications for Business Payments

By Erin McCune on September 4 2019

At Glenbrook we’ve been thinking about consumer data privacy and control, particularly as multiple competing ‘Faster Payment’ schemes arise in the U.S.. Obviously consumers need to feel comfortable asking for money; but they also need to safely receive and respond to ‘request for payment’ from billers and other businesses. This is a global concern. Citi […]

Payments Views

Why Talk About Risk in Payments?

By Yvette Bohanan on August 12 2019

Let’s be honest, risk is not the first topic people gravitate to in payments. It’s much cooler to talk about open banking, fret about PSD2 implications, or ponder the pros and cons of a cashless society. Even risk managers I know tend to keep quiet about risk – especially at social events. So why are […]

Bryan Derman

In Zuck We Trust?          

By Bryan Derman on June 22 2019

We got the first real details this week on the Facebook-sponsored Libra cryptocurrency. Opinions are still taking shape around Glenbrook, but it’s fair to say that the team is deeply intrigued by the possibilities and sees it as both a novel and potentially very practical application of blockchain technology. We think the consortium-based governance, open […]

Glenbrook

Creative Tension Shapes the Fintech-Bank Ecosystem

By Nicole Pinto on May 21 2019

In my last post I covered the proliferation of challenger banks, the mobile-first, digital-only neo-banks and what differentiates them from the incumbents. While the media lens is usually focused on the front-end, the user experience, I’m always curious about what’s powering these operations under the hood. From the traditional banks’ perspective, fintech companies are just […]

Glenbrook

Prepaid Power and Financial Inclusion at Fintech South

By Elizabeth McQuerry on May 1 2019

Georgia is a nexus of global payment processing and merchant acquiring activity. Some two-thirds of all U.S. purchase volume is processed there. That’s a lot of debit and credit card transactions. But what are those same companies doing to improve payments for the underbanked? That combination of payments technology and financial inclusion concerns was the […]

Glenbrook

The Apple Card May Not be Revolutionary—But It Offers a Thoughtful Bundle of Features and a Glimpse into the Post-Card Era

By Emily Simone on April 30 2019

Apple’s March 25th keynote event announced forthcoming offerings to further build out Apple’s Services line—video media streaming, print media subscriptions, gaming, and more. Most interesting to us at Glenbrook (surprise!) was Apple’s co-branded credit card launched in partnership with Goldman Sachs and Mastercard. The Apple Card, to be released in the summer, integrates consumer controls, […]

Payments Views

Challenging the Challenger Banks

By Nicole Pinto on March 14 2019

Fintech startups have begun a phenomenon some call the “unbundling of financial services” through standalone products such as unsecured consumer loans, credit cards, checking and savings accounts, or personal financial management tools. A cohort of entities known as “challenger banks” or “neo-banks” have also entered the market in an attempt to take on digital banking […]

Subscription Management

To Subscribe or Not to Subscribe

By Cici Northup on February 22 2019

After yet another data breach, I was recently told by a subscription-based publisher that my payment credentials held on file may be compromised. I took the necessary precautionary measures (e.g. retire previous payment credentials, establish new ones, etc.). During this process, I also decided to do a quick personal audit to answer the question: Where […]

Card Payments

Contactless Cards to Pressure the Open Loop Pays

By George Peabody on February 11 2019

Now that the contactless card form factor is coming to the U.S. in a systemic fashion, I thought it timely to discuss the competition between these cards and the open loop wallets from Apple, Google, and Samsung. A Push for the Pays Juniper Research released a report on January 29, 2019 based on its survey […]