I enjoy volunteering. For the past three years I was Cubmaster to my son’s Cub Scout Pack. One of highlights of the year is our annual Bonfire and S’mores recruiting event at the local Italian Center; it’s the time to sign up new and returning Scouts for the year and have them pay the registration
Read More
The Insights team wrote recently about how Swedish banks are discovering that people are seeing less and less use for cash. A spate of new announcements from major consumer technology players are showing that it’s not just banks that are looking to move beyond cash. Google announced at its I/O Developer Conference on May 15th
Read More
With increasing market segmentation in terms of consumer tastes, along with the increasing ability to educate and introduce new digital applications and solutions, what is the probability that one solution will become the dominant face of digital payments? Is there a tipping point for a virtual payment solution through any one channel? Apple’s iPhone experienced
Read More
68 million people. 45 million social media accounts. 25 percent of U.S. households. $78 billion annual spend on financial services. These numbers represent the underbanked in the United States – those who are challenged financially, either due to a lack of access to financial services because of low or absent credit scores, or simply incomes
Read More
“We need to think outside the box!” Whether you’re saying it or hearing it, if you’re talking about the payments business, make sure you think about the circle as well. If we’re talking about credit cards, “outside the box” usually means things like expanded mobile functionality, new form factors, enhanced rewards earning rates or ability
Read More
Having worked in this industry now for many years I, like many of my fraud management brethren, have heard the jokes. You know the ones, “You’re not fraud prevention, you’re sales prevention”, and all the other permutations. I have had the good fortune to work with fraud strategists and managers from issuers and merchants around
Read More
Anybody with an interest in the future of payments must read the Wall Street Journal’s interview with the lead software developer for the virtual currency, Bitcoin. It’s easily the best piece to appear so far—Payments Perspectives blogs excepted, of course—on the subject of the stateless currency. The developer, Gavin Andersen, is bright and engaging, and
Read More
