December 27, 2009
The Decade’s 12 Greatest Developments in Payments: #4 PayPal
The New Kid on the Block: PayPal Starting a new payment system is incredibly difficult. Many try, few succeed. MasterCard and Visa did it in the 1960s. No one did...
December 14, 2009
Mobilizing Citibank: A Tale of Trials and Tribulations
Earlier this week, Citibank provided some perspective on their mobile strategy and their renewed focus on a better delivery of “traditional” customer service. In the ever evolving landscape of mobile...
December 11, 2009
The Cost of Cash vs. Cashless Vending
A comparison of the cash and the cashless vending market and a look at the industry sizing figures from two leading vending industry census reports. Michael Kasavana Ph.D., is the NAMA-endowed...
December 07, 2009
What You Should Know about the Debit Card in Your...
Bank debit cards may look like credit cards, but they certainly do not act like them when it comes to account overdrafts. This does not suggest that credit cards are...
December 03, 2009
Banking the Unbanked Using Prepaid Platforms and Mobile Telephones in...
The rapid growth of mobile phone usage and the continuous rise in wireless coverage fuel the expectations that access to financial services through mobile phones could transform the way financial...
December 03, 2009
Square Aims at Mobilizing Payments
Once again the silicon valley is abuzz with talk about the new project from one of its heroes, but will Square, meet expectations? A decade ago with the advent of...
November 30, 2009
SpendingPulse 2009 Holiday Wrap-Up Report
MasterCard Advisors’ SpendingPulse, a macro-economic report tracking national retail and service sales, today provided summary results for the holiday shopping season. The data showed year-over-year growth in the period between...
November 18, 2009
Insights into Consumer Use of Financial Products: Payoffs from the...
I talked about behavioral economics in my last blog. Some of the top minds in that field are studying how consumers use financial products. They aren’t doing this to provide...
November 07, 2009
Three Problematic Truths About the Consumer Financial Protection Agency Act...
The creation of a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency (“CFPA”) is a very bad idea and should be rejected. The proposal is not salvageable and cannot be improved in substance...