March, 2022

• 1 March

  Fixing Open Banking’s One-Way Street

  

  Financial institutions have been cooperating with fintechs for years on data exchanges. But now banks need to get on the receiving end, says Sarah Grotta. Conceptually, open banking is a straightforward premise. Consumers allow their financial institution to share specific financial data electronically and securely with authorized third parties. Access …

February, 2022

• 1 February

  When Fraudsters Take a Vacation

  

  Theft of loyalty points has become a serious issue in the travel industry. But is it being taken seriously by hotels and airlines? With a new year comes new optimism that there will be a return to activities like travel. Some consumers will log in to book travel for the …

January, 2022

• 1 January

  What BNPL Means for Retail Payments

  

  It’s the hottest trend in online credit. The rewards outweigh the risks for most consumers and merchants. Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) is a payment option that allows customers to make purchases at stores and online without paying the complete amount upfront. Similar to the layaway programs of the past, BNPL …

December, 2021

• 1 December

  Why Europe Is Scary

  

  PSD2 won’t solve fraud completely. Here’s why—and what U.S. online merchants should do. In the United States, e-commerce has surged due to the maturity of companies’ digital platforms, innovative payment models, and the ongoing impact of the pandemic. U.S. e-commerce sales are expected to reach $933.3 billion in 2021, representing …

November, 2021

• 1 November

  The Myth of the Super App

  

  Another sort of unicorn. Here’s why it’s more accurate to speak of super-power apps. Mobile payments in the United States remain a minority, accounting for just under 4% of all payments made in-person. Even worse, 25% of U.S. consumers are still using paper forms of payment, including checks. Fintech-supplied bank accounts …

October, 2021

• 1 October

  How ISOs Can Leverage Vendor Relationships

  

  The pandemic has taught ISOs many lessons—including how to get the most out of their suppliers. Leveraging sales in highly competitive retail, restaurant, commercial and other prime industry segments can be challenging, especially given the ongoing impacts of economic disruptions in effect today. As businesses struggle to regain pre-pandemic commerce …

September, 2021

• 1 September

  The Eight-Digit BIN Problem

  

  Next year, a new ISO standard will expand the size of BINs by two digits, creating a security issue. Here’s an approach to a solution. A card-identification standard set by the International Standards Organization mandated that banks switch over from the current six-digit Bank Identification Number (BIN) to eight-digit BINs …

July, 2021

• 1 July

  Why Crypto Is the Future

  

  The case against it is mostly fallacious. The one for it is unavoidable. By the late 1980s, MasterCard was removing humans from the authorization cycle, replacing them with modems. By the 1990s, the Internet was connecting the last mile to merchants, replacing modems with instant authorization. Will the 2020s be …

June, 2021

• 1 June

  Be Careful What You Wish For

  

  A brief thought experiment illustrates the benefits—and risks—of breaking up the dominant network duo. Bank card networks Mastercard and Visa were the 20th century’s greatest payments innovation. Today, there’s a worldwide competitive patchwork of hundreds of “card” networks and alternative payment systems. But Mastercard and Visa are the only two …

April, 2021

• 30 April

  How Merchants And Networks Can Transform Shopping

  

  Most merchants can’t afford Amazon Go technology. But that doesn’t mean it’s out of reach. It’s the end of a long day at the office, and you swing into a pharmacy on the way home to pick up toothpaste. You’re not out yet, just running low and being proactive. You …