Technodazzle

I was reading an article a few days ago on the plateau of ebook reader sales and the slow retreat back to paper (here), and of course this lead my thoughts back to our own industry – particularly the nonsensical cheque lobbyists. However, does this harking back to a bygone era of paper banking reveal…

Do you hear the bell tolling?

So with margin erosion, tough competition and increasingly unfavourable regulation, where do the remain domestic debit schemes go? Is the bell indeed tolling on domestic debit?

Why XS2A is a red herring

Three months after publication of the final text for the second iteration of Europe’s Payment Services Directive (PSD2), the brouhaha over Article 29, commonly known as Access to Accounts or XS2A, continues unabated – but is it the big issue in PSD2 or just a red herring? I’m not going to go into the details…

Will card payments shortly have a Volkswagen moment?

there are loopholes to be exploited by companies willing to do so that could be closed with investment in post-implementation testing, live sample devices or by more widespread use of end-to-end demonstration-like testing

Authorisation is the New Interchange

It probably wouldn’t lead to a great drop in the costs for a Merchant, but it would create a fairer environment and provide greater transparency.

Thoughts on the Future of Payments

Like most things in life, payments are about giving and receiving…

This is the end, my friend

How much this will do to the economy of Gibraltar, Isle of Man, Malta and Cyprus I’m not sure, but keep an eye out for changes…

The Starbucks Moment – or how Europe can learn from EMV in the US

A friend in Seattle was telling me about the proud coffee culture there. For the longest time, coffee shops were considered a European thing, small French cafés with tiny coffees, Italian cafés with their tiny coffees and frothy milk – in essence not at all the American way of doing things (where BIGGER is ALWAYS…

Cartes 2014, Paris

The 29th edition of Cartes in Paris has been a strange old show. Meeting friends old and new is still an integral part of this annual calendar marker, but the show itself seems to be evolving into something new. Previously we’ve seen a market place, busy stands full of the latest tech demos and enticing…

Microtraining: EMV in Three

As part of my role as an EMV Evangelist, I’ve produced ‘EMV in Three’, which is essentially all you need to know about EMV in less time than it takes to make a coffee. Please feel free to share this microtraining with your friends and colleagues!

The penny dropped

Apple Pay won’t change the way that most of us pay itself, but it has opened a new door to future ubiquitous payment methods via the mobile, IoT or wearable devices.

The great interoperability myth

A question I’ve been asked many (many, many) times about payment cards is why do we keep old acceptance components on the card once we’ve migrated to EMV? For most you should read this as ‘why keep a magstripe?’ but it could equally be ‘why have embossed numbers?’ and ‘why have the PAN written on…