The document discusses the future of payments systems and key factors that influence their development. It makes three main points:
1) The business case, not technology, drives changes to payments systems. New systems like mobile payments must provide clear value to major actors like retailers, consumers, and banks to be adopted.
2) There are three primary actors in consumer payments - retailers, consumers, and depository financial institutions. None will be replaced by new entrants like tech companies.
3) Past payment innovations like PIN debit were driven more by addressing issues like check fraud than by technology. Future changes will be slow to develop but can happen quickly once reaching critical mass.
The 10 most promising payment and card solution providers Merry D'souza
The 10 most promising payment and card solution providers, September 2020; CIO Look admire their contribution in the evolution to local and global businesses.
For those who are asking where the banking industry is headed, how a GAFA Bank will look like, what banks can do to bridge the existing digital gap, and even leverage the disruption - here is a short summary.
The 10 most promising payment and card solution providers Merry D'souza
The 10 most promising payment and card solution providers, September 2020; CIO Look admire their contribution in the evolution to local and global businesses.
For those who are asking where the banking industry is headed, how a GAFA Bank will look like, what banks can do to bridge the existing digital gap, and even leverage the disruption - here is a short summary.
Future of payments - An initial perspective by MasterCardFuture Agenda
An initial perspective on the future of payments by MasterCard. This is the starting point for the global future agenda discussions taking place through 2015 as part of the the futureagenda2.0 programme. www.futureagenda.org
Transformation of the Electronic Payments Industry - Strategies for Growthfrancisfoo
This presentation provides a glimpse into the evolution of the digital payment industry and a discussion of both short-term and long-term strategies that players in this space could potentially adopt to stay ahead of the competition.
I've diverse interests across wide-ranging topics and industries and I thoroughly enjoy analyzing information and devising strategies to help companies better position themselves for the challenges ahead.
If you require more information and data, feel free to reach out to me at francisfoo@wustl.edu or connect with me on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/francisfoo/.
Thank you for your interest! Hope you find the information useful.
The electronic payment system is a way of making transactions or paying for goods and services through an electronic medium, without the use of checks or cash.
185 years Banking Technologies by Wind AmirasWind Amiras
Technology is everything, real-time payments as the latest technological innovation poised to shake up retail banking and the whole commercial sector. And yet a paradigm shift of this magnitude relies on a chain of smaller advances, ranging from improved core processing to tokenization and ever more reliable network security.
Staying abreast of the latest technologies is a huge challenge, because, for most bankers, technology isn’t their primary job. The timeline on the next few pages captures some of the upheavals bankers have already encountered and hints at even more seismic changes to come.
Within the last five years, we’ve seen an influx of new technology such as we’ve never seen before And the advances are going to continue to come quickly.
Keynote de Ron Shevlin en Next Bank Madrid 2013finnovar
Esta fué la presentación de Ron Shevlin en el Next Bank Madrid del pasado 25 de Junio 2013. Ron Shevlin es Senior Analyst de Aite Group y Autor del blog Snarketing2.0.
Few years before we are using the cash for payments. When a digitalization occurs the way of payments gets changed. It helps our country to move next level of development. It creates more awareness to people about the payment innovation. Umamaheswari K | Santhiya R | Ragavi J"Payments Innovation" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-2 | Issue-3 , April 2018, URL: http://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd11150.pdf http://www.ijtsrd.com/management/innovation-and-product-dev/11150/payments-innovation/umamaheswari-k
Mobile Payments in The Financial Services IndustryPenn Mutual
A comprehensive overview of the payments space specifically mobile payments, and how macro trends are driving revolutionary changes in how consumers purchase and transact. Mobile Payments (mPayments) is rapidly becoming the payment vehicle of choice for consumers worldwide. The primary drivers that have influenced this growth include mobile banking, social media, enabling technology, “unbanked” communities, and consumer/retailer acceptance of mobile commerce.
Growth in mobile and tablet sales is outpacing computers and in many markets now exceeds those of computers.
Acceptance and usage of mobile/tablet banking, payments, money movement, and other financial transactions are growing rapidly.
Mobile social media’s global exponential growth has become the primary channel for people to interact with friends and brands.
Convergence of mobile/tablet usage combined with social media are evolving into new, dynamic interaction models and ecommerce opportunities.
Financial service companies, most notable Banks, are faced with disintermediation and must rethink payment models and customer centric experiences.
CPNI Mobey Forum Mobile Payment Trusted Service Provider Sept 23 2008The Stilwater Group
Mobey Forum quarterly meeting Sept 23, 2008. The opportunity for banks and the entire mobile payment ecosystem created by focusing on remote mobile payments.
Future of Payments for Debit, Mobile Payments, Prepaid & ATM Execspaythink2015
A quick review of the key payments executives covering the developments of prepaid innovation, tokenization, digital payments, critical regulatory developments and ATM performance.
Future of payments - An initial perspective by MasterCardFuture Agenda
An initial perspective on the future of payments by MasterCard. This is the starting point for the global future agenda discussions taking place through 2015 as part of the the futureagenda2.0 programme. www.futureagenda.org
Transformation of the Electronic Payments Industry - Strategies for Growthfrancisfoo
This presentation provides a glimpse into the evolution of the digital payment industry and a discussion of both short-term and long-term strategies that players in this space could potentially adopt to stay ahead of the competition.
I've diverse interests across wide-ranging topics and industries and I thoroughly enjoy analyzing information and devising strategies to help companies better position themselves for the challenges ahead.
If you require more information and data, feel free to reach out to me at francisfoo@wustl.edu or connect with me on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/francisfoo/.
Thank you for your interest! Hope you find the information useful.
The electronic payment system is a way of making transactions or paying for goods and services through an electronic medium, without the use of checks or cash.
185 years Banking Technologies by Wind AmirasWind Amiras
Technology is everything, real-time payments as the latest technological innovation poised to shake up retail banking and the whole commercial sector. And yet a paradigm shift of this magnitude relies on a chain of smaller advances, ranging from improved core processing to tokenization and ever more reliable network security.
Staying abreast of the latest technologies is a huge challenge, because, for most bankers, technology isn’t their primary job. The timeline on the next few pages captures some of the upheavals bankers have already encountered and hints at even more seismic changes to come.
Within the last five years, we’ve seen an influx of new technology such as we’ve never seen before And the advances are going to continue to come quickly.
Keynote de Ron Shevlin en Next Bank Madrid 2013finnovar
Esta fué la presentación de Ron Shevlin en el Next Bank Madrid del pasado 25 de Junio 2013. Ron Shevlin es Senior Analyst de Aite Group y Autor del blog Snarketing2.0.
Few years before we are using the cash for payments. When a digitalization occurs the way of payments gets changed. It helps our country to move next level of development. It creates more awareness to people about the payment innovation. Umamaheswari K | Santhiya R | Ragavi J"Payments Innovation" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-2 | Issue-3 , April 2018, URL: http://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd11150.pdf http://www.ijtsrd.com/management/innovation-and-product-dev/11150/payments-innovation/umamaheswari-k
Mobile Payments in The Financial Services IndustryPenn Mutual
A comprehensive overview of the payments space specifically mobile payments, and how macro trends are driving revolutionary changes in how consumers purchase and transact. Mobile Payments (mPayments) is rapidly becoming the payment vehicle of choice for consumers worldwide. The primary drivers that have influenced this growth include mobile banking, social media, enabling technology, “unbanked” communities, and consumer/retailer acceptance of mobile commerce.
Growth in mobile and tablet sales is outpacing computers and in many markets now exceeds those of computers.
Acceptance and usage of mobile/tablet banking, payments, money movement, and other financial transactions are growing rapidly.
Mobile social media’s global exponential growth has become the primary channel for people to interact with friends and brands.
Convergence of mobile/tablet usage combined with social media are evolving into new, dynamic interaction models and ecommerce opportunities.
Financial service companies, most notable Banks, are faced with disintermediation and must rethink payment models and customer centric experiences.
CPNI Mobey Forum Mobile Payment Trusted Service Provider Sept 23 2008The Stilwater Group
Mobey Forum quarterly meeting Sept 23, 2008. The opportunity for banks and the entire mobile payment ecosystem created by focusing on remote mobile payments.
Future of Payments for Debit, Mobile Payments, Prepaid & ATM Execspaythink2015
A quick review of the key payments executives covering the developments of prepaid innovation, tokenization, digital payments, critical regulatory developments and ATM performance.
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LoginRadius held a Customer Identity Meetup in Toronto. This is the presentation from the event done by Bimal Parmar, Director of Marketing at LoginRadius
The iWallet’s Effects on Small Business and What It Means to YouiWallet Inc
Wallets, like the iWallet, are becoming a common form of payment for customers everywhere, but what about the forgotten part of those ACH transactions? The customers are buying from someone, aren’t they? This brings us to the other end of many of those payments: the small business.
THE MONEY EVENT PROGRAMMING AT CTIA's Super Mobility Week,
The only event where the MOBILE ecosystem and the MONEY
ecosystem will meet, make deals and create partnerships.
If you are involved with anything that touches connected commerce,
digital money or open platforms, you need to attend.
The business case for Personal Financial Management (PFM) — and MoneyDesktop (MD) specifically — continues to get better and better each year. As proof, we’ve gathered data from dozens of compelling sources. This data collectively answers three key questions:
1. Why Change?
2. Why PFM?
3. Why MD?
The answers to these questions showcase why MD continues to bring a phenomenal return on investment (ROI) for financial institutions everywhere.
Let’s get started.
The Internet of Things: A Prime Opportunity for Merchant AcquirersCognizant
For merchants, the Internet of Things’ vast connectivity makes it easy for consumers to purchase within an environment that is intuitive, familiar and comfortable. For acquirers, there is the opportunity to provide various interfaces for accepting payments from all connected touchpoints -- creating an omnichannel experience for customers.
Disruptive vs. Top Down Change in US Payments in 2016Walter Kitchenman
Innovation in Payments is rarely “Disruptive,” but is normally Top Down, driven by public private cooperation, where change is mandated from the top, and entrepreneurs respond to consumer preferences at the margins. In this presentation we show how mobile payments and the Cloud, accompanied by the requirements of likely eCity networks and APPs wlll emerge in 2016 and benefit IT innovators and non-FSIs (non-Financial Service Institutions).
Dorado Industries TrendWatch 2.0 Payments System Synopsis Q1 2015Dorado Industries
Quarterly review of the electronic payments industry happenings viewed from a current and historical perspective. Somewhat opinionated and snarky to separate fact from fiction.
[Note: This is a partial preview. To download this presentation, visit:
https://www.oeconsulting.com.sg/training-presentations]
Sustainability has become an increasingly critical topic as the world recognizes the need to protect our planet and its resources for future generations. Sustainability means meeting our current needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. It involves long-term planning and consideration of the consequences of our actions. The goal is to create strategies that ensure the long-term viability of People, Planet, and Profit.
Leading companies such as Nike, Toyota, and Siemens are prioritizing sustainable innovation in their business models, setting an example for others to follow. In this Sustainability training presentation, you will learn key concepts, principles, and practices of sustainability applicable across industries. This training aims to create awareness and educate employees, senior executives, consultants, and other key stakeholders, including investors, policymakers, and supply chain partners, on the importance and implementation of sustainability.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Develop a comprehensive understanding of the fundamental principles and concepts that form the foundation of sustainability within corporate environments.
2. Explore the sustainability implementation model, focusing on effective measures and reporting strategies to track and communicate sustainability efforts.
3. Identify and define best practices and critical success factors essential for achieving sustainability goals within organizations.
CONTENTS
1. Introduction and Key Concepts of Sustainability
2. Principles and Practices of Sustainability
3. Measures and Reporting in Sustainability
4. Sustainability Implementation & Best Practices
To download the complete presentation, visit: https://www.oeconsulting.com.sg/training-presentations
Affordable Stationery Printing Services in Jaipur | Navpack n PrintNavpack & Print
Looking for professional printing services in Jaipur? Navpack n Print offers high-quality and affordable stationery printing for all your business needs. Stand out with custom stationery designs and fast turnaround times. Contact us today for a quote!
Business Valuation Principles for EntrepreneursBen Wann
This insightful presentation is designed to equip entrepreneurs with the essential knowledge and tools needed to accurately value their businesses. Understanding business valuation is crucial for making informed decisions, whether you're seeking investment, planning to sell, or simply want to gauge your company's worth.
The world of search engine optimization (SEO) is buzzing with discussions after Google confirmed that around 2,500 leaked internal documents related to its Search feature are indeed authentic. The revelation has sparked significant concerns within the SEO community. The leaked documents were initially reported by SEO experts Rand Fishkin and Mike King, igniting widespread analysis and discourse. For More Info:- https://news.arihantwebtech.com/search-disrupted-googles-leaked-documents-rock-the-seo-world/
Enterprise Excellence is Inclusive Excellence.pdfKaiNexus
Enterprise excellence and inclusive excellence are closely linked, and real-world challenges have shown that both are essential to the success of any organization. To achieve enterprise excellence, organizations must focus on improving their operations and processes while creating an inclusive environment that engages everyone. In this interactive session, the facilitator will highlight commonly established business practices and how they limit our ability to engage everyone every day. More importantly, though, participants will likely gain increased awareness of what we can do differently to maximize enterprise excellence through deliberate inclusion.
What is Enterprise Excellence?
Enterprise Excellence is a holistic approach that's aimed at achieving world-class performance across all aspects of the organization.
What might I learn?
A way to engage all in creating Inclusive Excellence. Lessons from the US military and their parallels to the story of Harry Potter. How belt systems and CI teams can destroy inclusive practices. How leadership language invites people to the party. There are three things leaders can do to engage everyone every day: maximizing psychological safety to create environments where folks learn, contribute, and challenge the status quo.
Who might benefit? Anyone and everyone leading folks from the shop floor to top floor.
Dr. William Harvey is a seasoned Operations Leader with extensive experience in chemical processing, manufacturing, and operations management. At Michelman, he currently oversees multiple sites, leading teams in strategic planning and coaching/practicing continuous improvement. William is set to start his eighth year of teaching at the University of Cincinnati where he teaches marketing, finance, and management. William holds various certifications in change management, quality, leadership, operational excellence, team building, and DiSC, among others.
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HR recruiter services offer top talents to companies according to their specific needs. They handle all recruitment tasks from job posting to onboarding and help companies concentrate on their business growth. With their expertise and years of experience, they streamline the hiring process and save time and resources for the company.
Falcon stands out as a top-tier P2P Invoice Discounting platform in India, bridging esteemed blue-chip companies and eager investors. Our goal is to transform the investment landscape in India by establishing a comprehensive destination for borrowers and investors with diverse profiles and needs, all while minimizing risk. What sets Falcon apart is the elimination of intermediaries such as commercial banks and depository institutions, allowing investors to enjoy higher yields.
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At its core, generative artificial intelligence relies on the concept of generative models, which serve as engines that churn out entirely new data resembling their training data. It is like a sculptor who has studied so many forms found in nature and then uses this knowledge to create sculptures from his imagination that have never been seen before anywhere else. If taken to cyberspace, gans work almost the same way.
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A personal brand exploration presentation summarizes an individual's unique qualities and goals, covering strengths, values, passions, and target audience. It helps individuals understand what makes them stand out, their desired image, and how they aim to achieve it.
RMD24 | Debunking the non-endemic revenue myth Marvin Vacquier Droop | First ...BBPMedia1
Marvin neemt je in deze presentatie mee in de voordelen van non-endemic advertising op retail media netwerken. Hij brengt ook de uitdagingen in beeld die de markt op dit moment heeft op het gebied van retail media voor niet-leveranciers.
Retail media wordt gezien als het nieuwe advertising-medium en ook mediabureaus richten massaal retail media-afdelingen op. Merken die niet in de betreffende winkel liggen staan ook nog niet in de rij om op de retail media netwerken te adverteren. Marvin belicht de uitdagingen die er zijn om echt aansluiting te vinden op die markt van non-endemic advertising.
RMD24 | Debunking the non-endemic revenue myth Marvin Vacquier Droop | First ...
Dorado Industries TW Jack Benton Op-Ed column Q3 2013
1. Dorado Industries asked me to comment on Karen Webster’s article, “The Six Things that will Change
the Future of Payments,” published on the PYMNTS.com website, August 19, 2013.
To begin with, I enjoyed her piece and found very little with which to disagree. However, given this
opportunity, I will attempt to add some nuance to her words and also to bring some historical context
to her observations.
In the final analysis, the direction of future payments systems is all about the business case. It is not
about the technology, per se. It is not about trends. It is about what works and makes money.
A clear case from my personal experience related to the British experiment with EFT/POS Limited during
the mid 1980’s, an architecture for PIN based Debit. RSA security technology was the differentiator from
DES based PIN Debit, being launched in the United States in 1983 by the California banks, under the
Interlink brand. A man named Dick Allen, who was driving the effort for the Bank of England, insisted
that RSA was critical. RSA would require almost entirely new acquiring infrastructure. I pushed back that
the buyers and suppliers of terminals - the actors who had the most at stake in the acquiring front end
and who had been working this space since 1970 - had made almost no money, and were only now
starting to install the critical mass of devices that would allow financial success. Why would anybody
support the notion of tearing out that infrastructure simply to implement RSA? Well, they didn’t. In fact,
the big British banks ended up starting PIN Debit with a direct connect architecture which was inferior to
the switch model used by Interlink. Interlink became the dominant back end model for all future
payment systems. The British banks did this because the requirements of EFT/POS Limited were just too
over whelming. Instead, they chose a field expedient. EFT/POS Limited was eventually shuttered after
spending a great deal of money. So, whatever the idea, for example, mobile payments, there must be a
hard core business case. Is NFC in mobile another RSA like situation? Does NFC justify the increased
infrastructure cost? Depending on which actor (see below), does NFC produce enough concrete value
for the primary actors to allow a fourth actor control over a critical path? It is said that Google has
abandoned the point of sale and moved back to the Cloud, after spending a great deal of money. Did
they have an RSA-like experience?
I believe that the three primary actors in consumer payments have all along been the retailers, the
consumer, and the depository financial institutions. (Large Telco has tried many times over the past
twenty-five years to become a dominant actor in this space, and has repeatedly failed to do so.) The
clash between retailers and banks is not new. The battles over current interchange pricing are simply
this age’s manifestation of that battle. The fact that the Federal Reserve sits in the middle of the conflict
is not new. The Fed has always been the fourth actor in payments, indeed, the funder in the early 1970’s
of almost all of the original research which led to both the ACH and PIN based debit. Back then,
supermarkets in Southern California were being deeply hurt by losses from bad checks passed at the
point of sale, sometimes costing them 30 percent or more of their profits. They reached out to the
banks. The banks wanted no part of their problem. As the banks built out PIN based debit, the super
Page 1
2. markets and other retailers were seen more as competitors than as customers in trouble. This conflict
has prevailed for forty-five years.
I think, for the retail industry, decisions about payments have been dominated by two things: their
impact on costs and their impact on customer convenience. For consumers, it has been first about
convenience, and secondarily about cost. For depository institutions, it has been about protecting their
proprietary relationship with their customers, and increasingly over the years, about fees. The current
regulatory impasse (Dodd Frank, etc.), following on the heels of the financial crisis, should be a reminder
of the power of banking institutions. They generally get a lot of what they want and they are not easily
pushed around. I simply do not buy into the notion that Silicon Valley is going to replace in importance
any one of these three actors with respect to influencing the future of the payments system. Hence, I
obviously buy into Karen’s statement that “merchants are a key customer, worth listening to.” It always
has been that way, and it always will be, and hopefully the “worth” statement will lead to actual
listening. The difference today as compared to the earlier years of electronic payments is that the
retailers have substantially more leverage. However, I would add, that I am always amused when I hear
of yet another attempt by the retail community, or some other non banking community (Large Telecom,
for example), to set up some kind of controlling apparatus in the payments space. Again, my view is that
there are three core actors, none of them are going away, and each of them needs to be taken very
seriously.
The pricing tension between credit and debit has also always been there. The people in the retail banks
who were leading the charge on PIN based debit were payments people who were focused on changing
the payments system. They came from retail banking and operations. They were not primarily focused
on fees. From the beginning, they were a serious threat to the credit card people, particularly the people
on the acceptance side, who had been around for twelve to fifteen years, had a great gig going on both
the acquirer and issuer side of the game, who were earning huge discounts by today’s standards from
any retailer who took their cards, and saw PIN debit as a threat. Signature debit grew out of that conflict
as a way to impose credit card pricing on debit transactions. This was a horrifying development for the
hundreds of pioneers, many of whom were C-level executives in our biggest banks, who had designed
and implemented PIN debit with an extraordinary respect for security, the consumer and, yes, even the
retailers. But the business case for signature debit stomped all over these lofty concerns. Duplicity
triumphed. We all know how that eventually worked out. Initially, huge profits were made. Then, in
time, the retail industry fought back. Law suits were filed and won. And the game goes on right up and
through today’s debates and a judge’s declarations on interchange rates. These are the forces that
drove payments development, not technology, which was a primary enabler, but not a prime mover.
What can you believe that people want from payments? We all know the answer. It is ease of use. Less
so, for the consumer, it is also freedom from embarrassment. When a mobile payment at a physical site
is as easy to use as a piece of plastic, is as fast, and is as inexpensive it becomes a logical substitute. But,
to really be adopted, it must be better at these three things. The most significant change I have
experienced in retail payments is shopping at an Apple Store. But the device (their smart phone)
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3. substituted for a fixed in place POS terminal, with dedicated networking, still gets its data input from my
plastic. But, wow, was that a different retailing experience. You almost don’t know you are paying. The
business case must be great for Apple: they get to show-off their iPhone (isn’t this cool that we can do
this?); combine the check-out function with the sales function; increase customer convenience (it is
really fast); and increase efficiency. Is that a winner or what?
Today, our acquirer terminal can be a tablet, a smart phone, or a television set. This is a huge change.
However, the traditional payments system still dominates. It’s the same components, even the plastic,
except that you need to manually enter all of the card data. (That is, it is not the physical plastic, but
rather the data on the card. Storing it, capturing it and moving it without the presence of a piece of
plastic does not alter the fundamental architecture of the front end of the payments system.) If that’s a
bother, then you buy a little square device from Apple that attaches to your phone or iPad which allows
you to swipe the card. Sound familiar?
What is not familiar is how the camera in the phone has truly changed our lives. I am in awe of this. For
almost forty-five years we have been searching for an easier way to get deposits into banks. Then comes
along the third or fourth generation of smart phones, fantastic cameras, and a software app that can
connect all of that to a unique deposit transaction. That is a change I can admire. Years ago, when we
were bringing process analysis to payments, we struggled to understand what the consumer
wanted/needed when making a deposit. Suffice to say, it is a pretty slick thing when you can sit at your
desk at home or in your office and make a check deposit with your smart phone. This is cool. It beats an
ATM by a mile. And for the banks? Yikes! Banks have spent millions on about anything that will stop
checks (digitize them) almost before they leave your hand. Now we have the consumer funding the
acquiring terminal (the smart phone, of course) and feeling good about it. This huge win just dropped
into the laps of banks.
I believe as others, such as Google, that the profound changes are to be found behind the point of sale,
where data is massaged and turned into information. Almost any information that encourages the
merchant to treat me as a unique person may be a pleasant occasion. The delivery system could be very
conventional or it could include mobile devices or wrist watches. In the end, it is about the information
stupid, not about the device, or front end delivery architecture. But, one caution. Let us not forget NSA,
you know, this Snowden guy. How much pause might this disaster cause in consumer attitudes about
big data bases, particularly one’s that hold their personal and transaction data?
Let me reflect on another point, most assuredly from a high elevation. There are many new players in
the game, for example, companies offering new schemes which could circumvent Visa and MasterCard,
and other long time players in the game. It is said that Pay Pal is close to Visa in dollars and may even
surpass it. MCX has developed as a mobile commerce switch and claims a majority of retail as
participants. FIS’s Paynet scheme has ambitious plans to disrupt conventional payment patterns. Some
of the largest banks are, at least, cooperating with these new schemes. I cannot help ask this question:
how much room would there be for these entrants if the banks had not been forced to sell Visa and
Page 3
4. MasterCard? Separated from Visa and MasterCard – customers now, not exclusive owners – the banks
are free to deploy their enormous power against Visa and MasterCard, should a dominant business case
come forward. This reality encourages disruptive ideas. The banks are good at deploying power. I
wonder what if the banks had not been greedy and hidden the debit transaction behind their credit
cards? What if they had respected the unique PIN debit architecture and operating rules that so many
leaders supported? What if they had engaged the retail industry instead of exploiting it? How much
would they have really left on the table?
Finally, a challenge for the industry! When are we going to start taking payments improvement to the
health care industry? “Advanced payments” in a Starbucks store seems a bit like overkill when Visa and
MasterCard had already advanced payments efficiency in Starbucks and other merchants when they
simply said, “hey, these are small dollar transactions. You don’t need to get a full authorization.” But
healthcare, the combination of payments and insurance authorization, is ripe for improvement. The
payments and claims railroads need to come together, much sooner in the process. There are so many
points of sale: the Walgreens of the world; doctor’s offices; 24 hour urgent care, the ER, hospitals,
physical therapy, pain centers and no one, consumer or merchant (yes, let’s call them what they really
are) really knows for sure what is going to happen until the transaction is well under way, i.e., approval
or rejection. In addition, health care probably is the zone in our economy with the highest pay-off from
massaging information, indeed, the saving of lives, by inter-connecting payments, insurance, medical
encounters, medical history, and so forth. Why do the entrepreneurs keep going back to Starbucks, or
Target, or whomever? Why don’t they spend their energy on a really tough problem? Maybe there is a
good business case buried in that mess.
Karen notes that “changes in payments are historically slow” and she’s right. However, I had a favorite
phrase that I thought caught this situation better for planners, and it was this: how could anything that
took so long to develop, have happened so quickly? This phrase captures two realities, and both of them
are warnings. Bring more capital to the table when you are building, because you will need it. All
changes to the payments system have taken longer to achieve their critical mass transaction thresholds
then the best Harvard Business School types have forecasted – and they have consequently cost much
more to develop. But, at the same time, if you are not paying attention, you can find yourself
overwhelmed by a payment system change that has achieved critical mass.
Jack Benton was the Executive Director for the National Commission on Electronic Fund Transfers
throughout its two-year existence in the late 1970s. The Commission’s final report led to enactment of
the Electronic Funds Act. Jack subsequently founded Benton International, a payments consultancy, and
held key executive positions with Perot Systems and eFunds Corporation. Jack can be reached via email
at jack@4thqtr.com.
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