At Glenbrook, we get asked a lot about our views about mobile banking and payments. In our opinion, mobile payment is a whole separate kettle of fish - and not something addressed here. But mobile banking is here and now as most major banks are making their decisions about how to offer mobile banking this year. We've just posted our thoughts re a "thumbnail mobile banking strategy" - we welcome your comments.

Update: Glenbrook's Russ Jones turns the thumbnail mobile strategy into a 10-step cookbook.

Mercator Advisory Group has published a new report titled "The Global and US POS Market: Forecasts and Futures" that reviews global and regional POS terminal shipments and approximate revenues and looks at the future role of POS terminals in the payment ecosystem.   » Continue Reading

First Data International has announced it is providing card processing services for the new VIsa prepaid card introduced by Dresdner Bank, part of the Allianz Group. According to First Data, "the Dresdner Prepaid Card combines the principle of prepayment made familiar in the mobile phone market with the payment functionality of a credit card. The card is not linked to a credit facility, and the customer defines the level of credit available on the card by making a deposit. To support the new card, First Data is providing processing and call centre services."   » Continue Reading

If you're going to Jim Bruene's Finovate 2007 conference being held on Tuesday, October 2, in New York City, please introduce yourself to Glenbrook's Bryan Derman who will also be attending the conference. Bryan is based in the New York City area and supports a number of Glenbrook clients up and down the east coast.

Finovate 2007 will be showcasing twenty innovative financial services companies including: Andera, Billeo Inc., CheckFree/Corillian, ClairMail, Firethorn, Digital Insight, Geezeo, Identity Theft 911, iPay Technologies, Jwaala, Lending Club, Metavante, mFoundry, Mint, Monitise, Mortgagebot, MShift, Online Resources, Prosper Marketplace, and Yodlee.

TrialPay has announced that it has achieved more than 2.6 million registered users, 1,000 merchants and over 2,000 advertisers using its platform and that its user base continues to grow with more than 10,000 individuals registering daily.   » Continue Reading

The U.S. government has digitally unveiled a new, more secure design for the $5 bill that will be issued and enter circulation in early 2008. A new $100 bill will follow. This is the first time in history that U.S. paper money has ever been unveiled entirely online.   » Continue Reading

Discover Financial Services and Chase Paymentech have announced "the integration of Discover Network card acceptance into Chase Paymentech's payments network for small- to mid-sized merchants. Chase Paymentech is the world's largest merchant acquirer, with a customer base of more than 600,000 merchants in almost 1 million locations."   » Continue Reading

Forrester's Catherine Graeber has published a report titled "Raining On The Mobile Banking Parade" in which she takes a skeptical view of mobile banking. Graeber says: "We hate to rain on this parade, but here's the reality: Today's consumers still aren't very interested in mobile banking. Before putting a mobile offering at the head of the development queue, eBusiness banking execs should sit patiently on the sidelines and wait to see if the early leaders succeed in growing adoption and delivering a solid ROI."

At Glenbrook, we're taking a somewhat different view. Seems to us that both SMS-based and, particularly, browser-based mobile banking are relatively quick, easy, and cheap for banks to implement, enabling early learning about the customer's mobile interests. We agree that a positive business case for bankers to spend any significant money on mobile banking remains elusive.

Brandon McGee comments on the Forrester report - interpreting more positively some of the data Forrester presents.

Visa has released an update regarding the adoption of its Visa payWave contactless-based payments around the world. Visa payWave allows cardholders to wave their card in front of contactless payment terminals without the need to physically swipe or insert the card into a point-of-sale device.   » Continue Reading

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