Resources

By Glenbrook Partners This is a landscape review of QR Payments models around the world, with an emphasis on developments in emerging economies. In this report, we describe the various models, with particular attention to how QR code implementations connect with the underlying payments systems used to process the payments. Read More

The non-hub model may be more conducive to eventually using the “transport” capabilities of emerging blockchain technologies. The potential for dramatically lower costs with these technologies is of particular interest for financial inclusion. Read More

This issue pre-supposes that the “scheme interoperability” option has been chosen. (See Issue: Interoperability)Any multi-participant payments scheme requires a switching functionality to pass transactions from one participant to another. There are a variety of models in payments systems today that can be considered. A central “hub” switch is operated by… Read More

The Level One Project Guide uses the term “participation” to refer to entities who are direct members of a payments scheme: the Digital Financial Services (DFS) Providers. The payments scheme is the entity which writes and maintains the rules that bind these scheme participants. Note that participation is not necessarily… Read More

Many countries are also dealing with the question of whether or not interoperability should be mandated by regulation, or left to the market to lead. There are pros and cons to this issue, and there will be considerable variability from country to country in how this is handled, particularly given… Read More

A great deal has been written about interoperability, particularly for mobile money schemes in the developing world. Everyone seems to agree, in theory, that interoperability is a good thing, and serves end-users (customers) in their need to exchange transactions with counterparties.In most (if not all) countries, the major bank payments… Read More

Who governs the payments scheme or organization within a country? With a closed-loop structure, the question is obvious: the scheme is owned and governed by the provider of the system. With an open-loop system, or with interoperating closed-loop systems, there is a question of who governs either the system or… Read More

A persistent identifier, for both consumers and businesses, is a key element in managing fraud. Without this, a bad actor can simply assume a new identity. The use of a national identifier is a “best practice” for emerging digital financial systems. If the national identity system is not sufficiently deployed,… Read More

Identification is becoming an increasingly interesting and relevant topic in digital financial services. Please view the following articles that discuss mobile identification as well as linking mobile ID to bank account identification. Mobile Pay Players Focused on Biometrics Authentication The expansion of mobile money in the developing world has… Read More

There are many aspects of risk management in the operation of any payment system. In this section, we look specifically at fraud management. In most traditional payments systems, the service providers (normally banks) assume responsibility for detecting fraud in payments to/from their end-customers. This includes correctly managing the “know your… Read More

June 2015: Allen Weinberg is a founding partner of Glenbrook Partners, where he leads the firm’s work with the merchant community. Before founding Glenbrook, Allen worked at First Data, Visa International, and Accenture, in new product development, channel strategies, and pricing in the point-of-sale, eCommerce, mobile commerce, and money transfer… Read More

In thinking through developing a vibrant digital financial system, issues such fee structure are critically important, particularly for the bottom of the pyramid. We have curated articles and whitepapers on these specific issues below, which we encourage you to read and discuss. Fighting Poverty Profitably In this report, the… Read More

Every financial services provider has their own economic relationship with their customer – whether that customer is a consumer, a merchant, an enterprise or a government. How providers price their services depends, of course, on a wide variety of factors – including the costs of operating the payment system. In… Read More

May 2015:Carolina Trivelli is responsible within ASBANC, the Peruvian banking association charged with developing “Modelo Perú,” the new mobile money service mandated by federal legislation in 2014. Carolina was formerly the Minister of Development and Social Inclusion for Perú, and is committed to making “Modelo Perú” an instrument for financial… Read More

How do the two parties to a payment transaction tell each other they are going to pay? Sometimes, this is done with a payment system brand (“Do you take Visa?”) and sometimes with a common term (“May I give you a check?”). In a country-wide digital financial system, should there… Read More

Leveraging a digital financial services system like the one described in the Level One Project Guide for international remittance payments offer a strong opportunity for the developing world. Remittances currently account for approximately $540 Billion USD a year in transactions and the number of remittances are actually increasing year-to-year. Meanwhile, the… Read More

Reaching a broad population of unbanked consumers to provide financial services is a challenge in many countries. Both banks and non-banks have used agents (affiliated but not owned third parties), as permitted by regulations, to deliver aspects of financial services or (in the case of MNO’s) to handle the sale… Read More