July, 2020

• 1 July

  Security Notes: Understanding Unpredictability

  

  Alan Turing is seen as the Moses who led us all to the promised cyber land. His blueprint for a computing machine is the foundation of all the machines that have communicated worldwide, creating the ghostly universe of cyber. It was the same Alan Turing who posed the question: will …
• 1 July

  The Prepaid Rule’s Long Shadow

  

  It was easy to lose track of it in the midst of all the impacts of the novel coronavirus, but a crucial federal lawsuit filed seven months ago still hangs over the payments industry, carrying far-reaching implications for nearly all players. It’s PayPal Holdings Inc.’s action against the Consumer Financial …

June, 2020

• 1 June

  Payments 3.0: Postal Banking? Yes, Within Limits

  

  The U.S. Postal Service has become an unlikely flashpoint in the Covid-19 pandemic, finding itself at the center of arguments over relief funds both for institutions and consumers as its revenues have dropped during shelter-in-place periods around the country. The Post Office receives no taxpayer funds and has struggled financially …
• 1 June

  Security Notes: A Tale of Two Central Banks

  

  I have had the privilege to present the vision of tethered digital money both to the Federal Reserve and to the Peoples’ Bank of China, the PBOC. My business was good in both countries, but the response was vastly different. In the United States, the financial leadership became exceedingly anxious …
• 1 June

  PayPal And the ‘New Normal’

  

  Observers have said before that the Covid-19 crisis is reshaping payments. Now executives at PayPal Holdings Inc. expect a growing shift to digital options to be permanent. “People don’t want to touch cash. They don’t want to touch screens. There’s going to be a new normal,” said PayPal chief executive …

May, 2020

• 1 May

  Payments 3.0: Covid-19 Is a Call for Investment

  

  The Covid-19 pandemic is a mandate for making investments in customers, employees, and corporate infrastructure. The pandemic has caused many new problems, but even more so it has shown that old problems need to be addressed more than ever before. Long-recognized concerns in financial services have become acute problems under …
• 1 May

  Security Notes: The Digital Dollar Claim Check

  

  A claim check for a certain sum of money, X, which can be claimed 24/7 for its exact nominal value, with instant credit to the claimant account, is not exactly a box full of coins summing up to X dollars. It is like a key to a readily available box …
• 1 May

  A Glimpse of Costs to Come

  

  Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. have postponed their planned U.S. interchange revisions until July, but when these changes do take effect the net impact on merchants could be deep, according to an analysis released last month by CMSPi, an Atlanta-based global merchant payments consultancy. Indeed, the new pricing planned by …

April, 2020

• 1 April

  Payments 3.0: Fintechs’ Regulatory Gray Areas

  

  The rapid growth of payments technology has created gray areas in regulatory compliance and consumer protection, and regulators are working to catch up. The most recent example is the request for information published Feb. 26 by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The FDIC wants comments on “potential changes to its …
• 1 April

  Security Notes: Payments in a Time of Crisis

  

  “Social distancing,” the idea that we can slow down the spread of the novel coronavirus by isolating ourselves as much as is practicable, could help fight the disease but may also have bad knock-on effects of its own. It could shut down restaurants and other socially minded businesses, causing layoffs …