Payments Consultant

I just received a new Diners Club card when my last one expired, and this is my first EMV “smart card.”  There are several interesting things about this little package that just arrived, and it leads me to more questions than answers. Many issuers are distributing these EMV cards to their international travelers to relieve [...]

I have been following with rapt attention the enthusiasm about NFC and mobile payments.  As an early participant in the build out of the NFC ecosystem and currently a payments consultant, I’m in a position to see both the unequivocal positives of NFC mobile payments technology, and the complexity it will take to build it out. Any [...]

Today the Fed has issued their proposed interchange regulations.  They boil down to three key proposals: 1.  The Fed gutted interchange by setting prices at least 80% lower than today.  They proposed two choices for interchange prices, which amount to a giant win for retailers and a commensurate loss for issuers:  Either a flat $0.12 cap, or [...]

M-Paisa is a mobile payments scheme in Afghanistan modeled after the wildly successful M-PESA in Kenya that was launched in 2007 and now boasts over 12.5m subscribers.  From the mobile carrier Roshan paying it’s employees to the Afghan National Police force distributing salaries (and in some cases bumping salaries up to fend off the Taliban), this [...]

This week saw the announcement that Nokia is shipping their C7 smartphone with Near Field Communications (NFC) hardware capability and the promise of an NFC software upgrade coming soon. in the past, I’ve posted on Remote Mobile Payments, developments on the rumored AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile consortium, and opinions on how the parties should approach [...]

The reporter who broke the AT&T/Verizon/T-Mobile NFC Mobile Payments story this week just came out with a follow-up story that names the initiative and suggests the cities where it will pilot next year.  Apparently it’s caled Mercury, and the cities being contemplated are in Texas, Utah and Minnesota.  I’ll keep tracking the news on this story and post more here [...]

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Fear and Greed are often discussed among investors and others as the great emotional motivators among capitalists.  Looking through this filter let’s take a look at the big recent news in mobile payments:  a big deal between three of the largest US mobile carriers, a bank and a card network. AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile made [...]

Amidst all the hype, politics and lobbying in the Durbin Amendment interchange fees debate, is a little-noticed component that could have a big impact on the state of payment technology in the US.  I believe the changes offered by the House and accepted by Durbin and the Senate could lead to regulations that force the US [...]

2010 is the Year of Mobile Payments. Apple news, acquisition rumors and lots of investment news have kicked off 2010 in a big way for mobile payments.