December, 2024

• 1 December

  What’s Going on With Bitcoin?

  

  After some months of quietude, digital currencies are back in the headlines—or at any rate Bitcoin is. In case you haven’t noticed, that’s because the leading cryptocurrency as of the third week of November was pushing toward $95,000—not only an all-time high but also, not so long ago, thought to …

November, 2024

• 1 November

  How Soon Will Real Time Payments Be Routine?

  

  Have you been following developments in the world of faster payments? Probably the most exciting subchapter in this saga is the development and deployment of networks that can deliver real-time transactions, sometimes referred to as instant payments. But offering the capability for real-time transfers is one thing. Hanging over the …

October, 2024

• 1 October

  The Lesson From GPR Cards

  

  As the payments business attracts headlines for such innovations as open banking and account-to-account transfers—and rightly so—it’s easy to forget what’s going on with some fundamental services that keep finding new uses. That’s a pity, since focusing on such products is a useful reminder of the industry’s ingenuity. Take, for …

September, 2024

• 1 September

  The Next Stage for Real Time

  

  Are you ready for real time? Ready or not, here it comes—in more than one guise, and in far more than one application. When FedNow debuted commercially 14 months ago, the story mainly focused on the general concept of immediate money transfers. But since then, the payments industry has been …

August, 2024

• 1 August

  The Many Uses of Contactless Payment

  

  And you thought contactless technology was just for payments. Turns out, while it’s enabling more and more payments at the point of sale, the technology is offering even greater potential. Contactless transactions were supercharged by the pandemic, and now slightly more than half of U.S. cardholders are using the technology …

July, 2024

• 1 July

  The Lesson From eBay

  

  If, as seems to be the case, the future belongs to e-commerce, does that mean the future also belongs to the corollary of e-commerce, digital-payment apps? We chewed on this question as we pondered the significance of eBay Inc.’s decision last month to ditch American Express, and then, just days …

June, 2024

• 1 June

  Get Set for an Emboldened CFPB

  

  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s victory at the Supreme Court last month answers for now the question of its constitutionality and may quiet the agency’s critics. But make no mistake: the CFPB remains a potent agent of federal power operating with an aggressive agenda. Indeed, some payments experts fear the …

May, 2024

• 1 May

  The Vacation From Reality Is Over

  

  Real-world living can be a hard, grinding affair, but sometimes some folks are granted what we might call a “holiday” from reality—a chance to escape from the cares of everyday living, brought on, perhaps, by a big raise, a winning lottery ticket, or a substantial inheritance from dearly departed Aunt …

April, 2024

• 1 April

  The CFPB Targets Mobile Wallets

  

  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is at it again. If you develop or manage mobile-payment apps, you might want to pay attention. The agency’s proposed rules, aimed at so-called larger participants, may ensnare you, even if you’re only a fraction of the size of, say, Google or Apple. The agency …

March, 2024

• 1 March

  What’s in Apple’s Wallet?

  

  The answer to that question depends on a number of factors, some of them a bit complicated. In this issue’s cover story (see page 18), we come at the question guided by the thought that the Cupertino Colossus has certainly had some interesting approaches to the theory and practice of …