Card Network Earnings Are In - It’s Now Safe to Exhale!

By Bryan Derman

It seems like it’s been a month now that we at Glenbrook – and people all around the payments business – have been holding our collective breath waiting to see what level of purchase volumes would be reported by MasterCard and Visa for Q4 2008.

Well, the results came in the last 24 hours, and while it wasn’t pretty, the numbers weren’t quite so bad as some had feared. In fact, in some ways, they were a mildly pleasant surprise. » More

A Look at PayPal's Q3 2008 Financial Results

by Russ Jones

eBay announced Q3 2008 results today, along with a significant PayPal milestone: off-Ebay purchase volume has for the first time exceeded on-eBay purchase volume. Before looking at what this means, the terminology here is worth clarifying. On-eBay purchase volume is all purchases made through PayPal to finalize purchases inside the eBay marketplace. Off-eBay purchase volume is all purchases made using PayPal with third-party merchants, unrelated to eBay. » More

Report from CTIA - Mobile Payments Eventually

by Jacqueline Chilton

The CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment conference was held in San Francisco this week. Theme was “Wireless – It’s how you use it.” When it comes to mobile payments and mCommerce, I could not agree more.

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Checking Up on Bill Presentment

By Bryan Derman and Jim Salters

CheckFree and AT&T Mobility recently announced that AT&T would begin supporting electronic bill presentment through CheckFree-powered bank bill pay sites. AT&T Mobility's more than 70 million customers will now be able to receive their bills electronically at their bank's bill pay site if the bank is a CheckFree customer. AT&T Mobility joins 400 other billers who currently present bills through CheckFree's 3,000 banks. » More

A Look at Billeo and Online Bill Payment in the US

Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson recently interviewed Murali Subbarao, CEO of Billeo, about the status of the online bill payment marketplace in the US.

Secure Vault Payments - A Bank-Centric Alternative Payment System

Glenbrook's Russ Jones recently met with Ken Myles of NACHA to get an update on NACHA's Secure Vault Payments initiative. Read on for Russ' insights and reactions to what he learned.

An Interview with Pariter Solutions CEO Stephanie Sturgis-Griffin

Glenbrook’s Carol Coye Benson recently interviewed Stephanie Sturgis-Griffin, the newly named CEO of Pariter Solutions, a Wells Fargo and Bank of America joint venture for ACH processing. The company, according to the press release announcing it last May, will be “the country’s largest processor of ACH payments”. Read on for Carol's full report.

An Interview with Steve Ellis, NACHA Chairman

Glenbrook’s Carol Coye Benson interviewed Steve Ellis, NACHA Chairman, recently about the use of ACH to access consumer checking accounts and NACHA's Secure Vault Payments initiative. Read on for her full report.

Mobile P2P Payments Continue to Evolve in the US

by Jim Salters

One of the "hot topics" in payments in the US market is the evolution of mobile payments - from "inevitable idea" to reality. Obopay and PayPal Mobile are both now over 2 years old - having been launched in the spring of 2006. TextPayMe, a mobile payment service that launched in late 2005, is now a part of Amazon's payments offerings. How are these services evolving? » More

It's June 2008 - Do You Know Where Your BIN's Are?

by Bryan Derman

We were intrigued by this week’s announcement that the FDIC had issued enforcement actions against two banks (and reached a settlement with a third bank) related to their sponsorship of credit card programs promoted by CompuCredit.

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