September, 2018

• 2 September

  Security Notes: Making Uninterrupted Payments a Reality

  

  Payment technology has kept pace with living technology, and thereby has kept payment as the widely accepted means for moving people to do things they otherwise would not do. In other words, humanity runs on payment. Our civil order is maintained through the ability of people to get others to …
• 2 September

  Another Big Merchant Challenges Visa Over Acceptance Costs

  

  There’s nothing payments executives love more than watching a fight pitting a leading retailer against a big payment card network over credit or debit card acceptance costs and terms. That’s what they’re getting with the current spat between supermarket giant The Kroger Co. and Visa Inc. Citing what it calls …

June, 2018

• 29 June

  Payments 3.0: Deep Trends in Banking And Payments

  

  As this is my last Payments 3.0 column, I thought I’d share some of what I call deep trends that will, I expect, affect the banking and payments industry in the coming years. Banking and payments will always be more about trust than technology. Most people aren’t paying for things …
• 29 June

  Security Notes: Unpredictable Means Unhackable

  

  Our predictability is our vulnerability; hackers are unpredictable, and that is their asset. Instead, we need to be less predictable, and deny hackers their unpredictability. Unpredictability is a more powerful cyber weapon than the array of expensive—and predictable—defenses you now rely on. Unpredictability is not an all-or-nothing solution. It is …
• 29 June

  First Data’s Star Makes a Bid for Signature Transactions

  

  Payment processor First Data Corp.’s Star debit network is poised to aggressively challenge Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. for a share of the signature-debit market. That’s a business the global networks have dominated since signature debit became a payment option more than 20 years ago. Star gained a potentially big …
• 1 June

  Payments 3.0: Payments in the Time of Facebook

  

  Many years ago, in a press interview, I commented on the importance to banks and payment companies of understanding the then new phenomenon of Facebook. At the time, it looked as if social media might become a major platform for payments. It turns out that mobile media has taken that …
• 1 June

  Security Notes: Payment in an AI Ecosystem

  

  Payment should be efficient, secure, and convenient. Alas, these three objectives pull in different directions. Efficiency and convenience tend to undermine security; convenience pulls towards versatility, which in turn harms efficiency. A balance is called for, and the most daring ideas call for a dynamic rather than a static balance. …
• 1 June

  Rerouting Payments Around the Card Networks

  

  First it was retailers, which tried but failed. Now an airline trade group wants to develop a payment system that would bypass the credit card networks, theoretically saving carriers billions in interchange. The proposal comes from the International Air Transport Association, which says it has 280 members representing 83% of …

May, 2018

• 1 May

  Payments 3.0: How To Innovate, Part II

  

  (This is the second part of a two-part column. Part I appeared in the April issue.) Last month, we went through the first three steps in a process that banks and fintechs have used to innovate. This month, we’ll complete our description of the process of facilitated group innovation. It’s …
• 1 May

  Security Notes: The Positives of Negative Cash

  

  Have you ever seen a bank note marked “One Negative US dollar”? Have you ever tossed a “negative dime?” Can you even think of any meaning for such entities? What is impossible for physical money is a simple tag for digital currency. It is not just easy to mint, it …