Over on Payments Views, Glenbrook's Scott Loftesness blogs about the new FIS approach to mobile payments:

With much of the card payments industry zigging toward an NFC-based solution securing payment card credentials on mobile handsets, FIS is zagging in a different direction with this new solution – one that doesn’t need to wait for NFC and Secure Element (SE) chips to be embedded in mobile phones.

FIS is the world’s largest global provider of banking and payments technologies, serving 14,000 financial institutions in over 100 countries.

Over on Payments Views, Glenbrook's Jacqueline Chilton summarizes and reacts to the CFPB Final Remittance Rule that has been issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. "This rule has considerable implications with both intended and potentially unintended consequences."

Registration is open for Glenbrook's Payments Boot Camp February 15th and 16th in Santa Clara, CA and April 10th and 11th in New York. Our constantly-updated material includes a substantial section on all things wallet - NFC, cloud, P2P and more. Come hear Glenbrook explain what's happening, why, and what the future may look like. More dates, agendas, testimonials and information at www.glenbrook.com or contact Glenbrook partner Carol Coye Benson.

Over on Payments Views, Glenbrook's Russ Jones blogs about "Who Knows What In Payments?" and the explores whether or not the targeting of ads and offers can be enhanced with insight from payment transaction data. He also looks at what mobile wallets will know about the consumer's purchase behavior.

Last call! Are you a CNP merchant that's interested in learning how other merchants organize and staff their payments and fraud risk management organizations? There are a few days left to participate in our online survey and we'll share the results!

You can find the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/75CQCHX

Over on Payments View, our sister publication, Glenbrook's Russ Jones blogs about his hands-on experience using PayPal Empty Hands at the POS.

I went by the San Carlos Home Depot on the way to the Glenbrook office this morning and used PayPal’s “Empty Hands” to pay for my purchase. The whole thing worked and I left the store with a Home Depot receipt that listed my payment method as “PayPal” instead of “Visa XXXXXXXXXXXX9297″.

Over on Payments Views, our sister site, Glenbrook's Russ Jones blogs about The First Natural Law of Mobile Payments. Here's a hint.

There are lots of different mobile payment domains, lots of different use cases, and lots of different solutions — but if they don’t involve a mobile device to some degree, we certainly can’t call them mobile payments!

Over on Payments Views, our sister site, Glenbrook's Russ Jones blogs about Verizon's $2.00 bill payment convenience fee, and asks whether the whole exercise was crazy... or not.

There are three broad things that most billers care about — presentment method, payment channel, and payment method. Not all billers have the same goals and objectives, but I would argue that all billers frame their ‘funds collection’ strategy along these lines.

Glenbrook has launched a new research effort exploring best practices among merchants about how payments and fraud risk management functions are organized, staffed, and measured.

If you work in the payments or fraud risk management functions for a merchant, please take a few minutes to complete our survey. In exchange for your help, we'll share the results with you!

You can find the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/75CQCHX

Thanks for helping us out!

Over on Payments Views, Glenbrook's Scott Loftesness takes a look back at payments in 2011.

At Glenbrook, we thrive on thinking about how payments are evolving and how these changes will affect us in the years ahead. In this look back at the important payments themes of 2011, we share a summary of some of our best thinking over the course of 2011 from our PaymentsViews.com web site.

Over on Payments Views, Glenbrook's Russ Jones blogs about the parallels between Square and PayPal.

We’re in the midst of another disruption cycle on the acquiring side of the card payments business in the US. You can almost feel it happening. And, if you’re paying close attention to the data, you can see it happening. If you’re not – if you’re into incumbent thinking – you’re not seeing what’s happening.

Over on Payments Views, Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson blogs about her recent experience at the annual conference of the 'Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion' at U.C. Irvine.

IMTFI is building a network of researchers, often from smaller universities in the developing countries, who are doing a wide range of projects. It won’t surprise anyone to hear that a lot of the research revolves around the use of mobile phones for financial services. Mobile wallets are, in a variety of different configurations, providing access to bank account-like features (savings, transfers) to previously unbanked people.

Glenbrook’s 2012 Winter and Spring Payments Boot Camps in New York and the San Francisco Bay Area are open for registration. Payments Boot Camps are being offered February 15-16 in Santa Clara, CA, April 10-11 in New York City, and May 16-17 in Palo Alto, CA.

Our popular Payments Boot Camp is a two day “deep dive” into the world of payments. Day One covers the basics: how payments systems work; the core systems (value chains, providers, and economic models); perspectives of key users and providers in the systems; and “What We’re Watching” – key trends and drivers of change. Day Two covers Emerging Payments, with new and updated content on Mobile Wallets (POS, cloud, P2P, NFC and more!) and Global Payments.

Agendas, testimonials, and logistics information is available on the Glenbrook Payments Essentials website.

In reaction to Apple's EasyPay mobile checkout technology, Glenbrook's Russ Jones weighs in on the topic of mobile self checkout that seems to be catching momentum in the marketplace. Over on Payments Views, in a posted entitled "Mobile Self-Checkout Breaks Out for POS Payments" Russ elaborates on today's NFC mania:

Maybe retailers and shopkeepers could just embrace today’s mobile technology instead, change their in-store control procedures, and let a thousand flowers bloom? When Apple — arguably one of the most successful retailers in the last decade — says that mobile self-checkout is ready for use today, others might very well want to have a look. And quickly.

Over on Payments Views, Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson blogs about the different micro-merchant payment models emerging in the U.S. market. In a post entitled, "Micro Merchants: P2P Squared?" Carol writes, "I’ve been thinking a lot about the opportunities around helping micro merchants accept electronic payments. You know, your basic nanny/gardner/hot dog vendor/flea market vendor scenario."

Glenbrook's Erin McCune is moderating a mobile payments panel at the Financial Women's Association of San Francisco on Monday November 14th that will feature executives from Wells Fargo, BilltoMobile, Obopay and mFoundry. Topics include the myths and realities of mobile offers and couponing, how to ensure consumer adoption success at the point-of-sale, and how mobile payment schemes have supplanted traditional banking in emerging markets.

Over on our sister blog, Payments Views, Glenbrook's Russ Jones wraps up his commentary on the recent X.Commerce Innovators Conference with a post entitled, "Do You Want a Commerce Identity? I Do!"

Logging in to a website with my social identity tells the seller that I have an account. That’s all. But using my commerce identity via PayPal Access tells the seller that I’m a buyer. It tells them, minimally, that I’ve set up a PayPal account, attached a payment method to that account, and the account is in good standing.

The post explores the implications of PayPal Access and the little known X.Commerce Segmentation Service and Prospect Score.

Over on our sister blog, Payments Views, Glenbrook's Russ Jones has shared his thoughts on how the Siri "personal assistant" on the iPhone 4S might someday be payment-enabled.

Our particular interest in Siri here at Glenbrook is how this (or other) intelligent voice-aware agents might be enabled at some point to truly streamline how we buy stuff online. We think of it as “conversational commerce”.

The full post is available here.

Over on our sister blog, Payments Views, Glenbrook's Russ Jones shares his thoughts on PayPal's vision for taking its momentum in online payments to the point of sale in the offline world –– PayPal Thinks Big Offline: Exploring PayPal’s Seamless Shopping Vision.

It is interesting that PayPal is focused on optimizing the shopping experience, and not just the payment experience. As many people have pointed out, it’s not only how long it takes to swipe your payment card at BestBuy –– it’s how long you have to wait in line for that privilege.

Are you planning to attend the Airline Travel and Payments Summit (ATPS) in Toronto this week? Glenbrook's Jacqueline Chilton will be on hand to speak on Wednesday, October 12 on "Social Media's Impact on Payments". If you're attending, be sure to drop Jacqueline a line. She'd love to chat about payments.

Over on our sister blog, Payments Views, Glenbrook's Bryan Derman shares his thoughts on the new debit card fees. While sympathetic to the economic plight of the large retail banks, he also questions the message big banks are sending to their customers.

…the idea of buying a checking account where the debit card is a feature requiring a supplemental fee must seem like buying a new car from General Motors that considers a steering wheel or tires to be a separately priced option.

Over on our sister blog, Payments Views, Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson has posted some thoughts on NACHA's recent Request for Comment about its proposed rule change to support "Expedited Processing and Settlement" of ACH transactions.

Over on Payments Views, our sister blog, Glenbrook has posted an excerpt from its South Korea eCommerce Market Analysis report that describes how the bill-to-mobile phenomenon works in South Korea. Many consider South Korea the cradle of mobile billing and its interesting how the payment method has evolved over time.

Earthport has announced the results of a new report that provides a detailed understanding of the ideal cross-border payment solution from the perspective of both payment professionals and payment initiators. The global survey, which is based upon responses from professionals across the financial ecosystem, was conducted by payments strategy consulting firm Glenbrook Partners.

The full report can be downloaded here. READ MORE »

Over on Payments Views, Glenbrook’s Bryan Derman is live blogging the two-day marathon of financial technology demos at FinovateFall 2011 in New York. The format for Finovate is fast and furious. No PowerPoint – all demo. Each company has seven minutes. You can also track the Twitter coverage using the hashtag #finovate.

Over on Payments Views, our sister blog, Glenbrook's Scott Loftesness shares his thoughts on the current state of play of mobile payments in the US market.

The traditional players are zigging – away from mag stripe card technologies (with, perhaps, the exception of Citi and its work with Dynamics) toward a world of NFC/contactless payments. Meanwhile, it seems that PayPal isn’t waiting for that world. Instead, it’s zagging toward a speedier implementation of, arguably, a new and convenient way to pay that’s card-less and avoids the requirements of rebuilding so much of the payments ecosystem.

Are you planning to attend the international banking conference Sibos in Toronto next week? Glenbrook's Erin McCune and Carol Coye Benson will be there, so be sure to reach out if you want to talk Global eCommerce, Cross-Border B2B Payments, or payments in general. Erin will be presenting new cross-border payments research on a panel with NACHA and the Federal Reserve on Tuesday afternoon.

Over on our sister blog, Payments Views, Glenbrook's Russ Jones takes a look at purchase friction in mobile commerce and wonders if the industry's fascination with mobile coupling isn't missing the point.

In practice, sellers will use any number of tactics to group buyers with different price sensitivities into different categories. Many of these tactics are based on adding friction to the buying process in order to distinguish the price sensitive customer (who will endure the inconvenience to get the better price) from the non-price sensitive customer (who values convenience).

Fall payments boot camps in San Francisco and New York, Final Durbin Rules webinar, and revised eCommerce market analysis reports...

Payments Boot Camps – Two day “deep dive” into the industry, $1995

Oct 04-05, 2011: Santa Clara, CA - Allen Weinberg and Carol Coye Benson

Oct 26-27, 2011: New York, NY - Bryan Derman and Carol Coye Benson

Dec 07-08, 2011: Santa Clara, CA - Scott Loftesness and Carol Coye Benson

Payments Essentials Webinars Library

Glenbrook's webinar analyzing the Final Durbin Rules - with Bryan Derman, Scott Loftesness, and Russ Jones - is now available for playback in the Payments Essentials Library, $149.

eCommerce Market Analysis Reports

Glenbrook's report on the Chine eCommerce market has been revised to reflect 2010 data, new payments acceptance providers, and much greater detail on mobile commerce in China.

Over on our sister blog, Payments Views, Glenbrook's Allen Weinberg takes a look at Visa's recent EMV and contactless acceptance mandates in the US.

The big story is that Visa’s move will accelerate the way for mobile payments with unprecedented scale. Think about it – within a few years, essentially every merchant in the US will have the basic infrastructure in place for mobile payments – and, perhaps more.

Allen also steps through through the electronic payments ecosystem to explore whether this is positive, negative, or neutral to the various stakeholders.