October, 2019

• 1 October

  The Digital Revolution Comes to Remittances

  

  Western Union, MoneyGram, and Ria have ruled the money-transfer landscape for decades. Now they are challenged by a slew of digital-first upstarts. Does the old guard have what it takes to stay ahead of the competition? From mobile wallets and person-to-person payments to cryptocurrencies and blockchain ledgers, digital disrupters are …

July, 2019

• 1 July

  How the Twitter Guy Changed Payments

  

  It’s been almost a decade since Square piled into the merchant-acquiring industry. How much disruption did this upstart cause? It’s late April of 2010 at automated clearing house governing body NACHA’s annual conference in the Seattle convention center. On stage before an audience of 2,000 bankers and other mostly buttoned-down …

March, 2019

• 1 March

  So Many Irons in the Fire

  

  PayPal’s octopus-like strategy covers everything from P2P payments, bill pay, and the point of sale to parting ways with eBay. Can Schulman and Co. keep all the balls in the air? PayPal Holdings Inc. president and chief executive Dan Schulman can’t be accused of making small plans. “We aspire to …

September, 2018

• 30 September

  How to Tell Which Next-Great-Thing Will Be the Next Great Thing

  

  Separating probable success from probable failure, in four handy rules. Every October, the payments hype machine goes wild. A variety of next-great-things are about to dominate headlines and conference agendas. Most will die off quickly, so here are four rules you can use to focus in the right places: Talk …

June, 2018

• 29 June

  Cross Currents in Loyalty

  

  Merchants are asserting more control over their rewards programs, and everyone in the loyalty chain is trying to figure out what works best in a fast-changing market. If you’re in the market for mixed signals, rewards programs are sending out plenty of them. Some big merchants such as Target Corp. …

April, 2018

• 2 April

  Universal Cards 2.0

  

  Will additional embedded features in the new universal cards move them ahead in the age of digital wallets? People may have to forget the failures of the earlier generation first. Getting consumers to carry more than one credit or debit card has been the goal of most issuers for the …
• 2 April

  Who’s Afraid of Cryptocurrencies?

  

  Can any of the largest crypto coins evolve into an everyday payment instrument? Here’s what it will take to make that happen. One year ago, there were two digital currencies whose total coins in circulation were worth more than $1 billion. They were Bitcoin, at $19 billion, and Ethereum, at …

October, 2017

• 1 October

  The Meaning of PSD2

  

  Europe’s new payments regulation promises much, including free transactions. But do banks need to be forced to do what’s in the best interests of customers and shareholders? The European Union’s revised payment-services directive (PSD2) changes rules governing payments and is intended to, and inevitably will, impact the roles and economics …

July, 2017

• 1 July

  Whatever Happened to Buy Buttons?

  The buy button, which only two years ago showed much promise on social networks, has been superseded by the need to accommodate mobile shoppers. They were once thought to be a new way to spur more online transactions as consumers amped up the time they spent on social networks. But, …

June, 2017

• 1 June

  Faster Payments in the U.S. (As It Has Unfolded So Far)

  

  The Fed’s task force has made a lot of progress, and on some fronts the results look promising. So why does it seem like the creation story of Visa and Mastercard all over again? It has been a long time since the initial Faster Payments discussions in 2013, and one …