As most of you have heard Apple rolled out Apple Savings Monday. A 4.1% savings account with $250k max balance (FDIC limit). Here are a few quick take items.
Short Blog – Apple Savings
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Apple Launches Pay Later
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/03/apple-introduces-apple-pay-later/
Apple Pay Later was announced at Apple’s WWDC on June 6, 2022 (Youtube – ~21:00 in). I covered the details last year in Apple Pay Later – What is it?
Today it is going live in a limited rollout. Summary points
FedNow Hurdles and Opportunities
Short Blog – Follow Up to Last Week’s FedNow Update
I’ve got 4 blogs in queue with Part 5 – Future of Retail Banking coming next week. I’ve been asked to expand beyond my pro-network bent into areas like FedNow, PayPal, Stripe and Asia… etc and I will oblige. For today, drilling down on FedNow’s opportunity and the key barriers for “break out growth” (expanding on the last 2 bullets within 22 Feb FedNow blog). Feedback appreciated.
FedNow Update – Short Blog
My last blog on topic was less than a month ago Real Time Payments in US – Strategic Shifts (Jan 2023), and also FedNow (Dec 2021). Will thus keep this blog to summary bullets.
- FedNow launching this summer with almost 100% of US merchant focused banks participating. At launch, both credit and debit ( Request for Payment -RfP) transactions will be supported.
- Great summary interview last week from FRB’s Mark Gould
- Back in 2013, the Fed requested comments on a real-time payment system. In general, consumers don’t seek to pay their bills faster, nor do consumers have issues in receiving their payroll deposits late. The card environment works very well, particularly for debit. Emergency bill payment has been the only well-defined consumer need for speed (see Starpoint’s 2013 response to Fed).
SRC – Why Now and What is the Opportunity?
Short blog. What opportunity are top US issuers chasing with an SRC wallet?
During my talks with top acquirers, I gained new insight into eCommerce volumes. As a committed ApplePay user I was shocked to hear that ApplePay use in browser is significantly under 5% (even in iOS/Mac devices). Per my blog on intersections, the dynamic is due to both Chrome vs Safari and merchant adoption.
Innovation in Networks – Part 4
The Strategic Innovation Era
© Starpoint LLP, 2022. No part of this site, blog.starpointllp.com, may be reproduced in whole or in part in any manner without the permission of the copyright owner.
This blog has been sitting at 80% for almost 3 months. Sorry for the delay. This was a 30 page blog that I slimmed down to 16. Thus the long summary section. This blog is focused on networks and their ability to: 1) internally charter their own evolution, 2) grow network of supporting stakeholders, 3) stimulate network growth, and 4) encourage investment/innovation. Why read this? Payment innovation is set to grow Global GDV by 50% (above baseline) over the next 5-7 yrs. Today’s blog is a basis for this hypothesis.
A very long blog with 3 page summary below
FTC Orders MA to Detokenize
Short blog
Today the FTC issued an order to Mastercard to Detokenize eCom transactions (detailed order here)
Debit, Routing, Tokens and Liability Shift
Short arcane post. Dual routing of debit in ecom is much more complex than I thought. A puzzle and my head is spinning. Hang with me here as I don’t want to write a novel. This only applies to debit in the US.
The key take away? Competing PIN networks have new headwinds in tokenized PANs. Tokenization with a liability shift will protect Visa debit.
Continue readingPart 2 – The Power of Bank Networks
The Bull Case for V/MA (24 pages).
© Starpoint LLP, 2022. No part of this site, blog.starpointllp.com, may be reproduced in whole or in part in any manner without the permission of the copyright owner.
Part 1 – US Payments Environment covered the complexity of the US payment environment and the challenges faced by top banks in modernizing their systems (where all systems live forever). There are many types of payments: bill payments, A2A, P2P, wires.. Today the focus is on how banks intermediate commerce. Banks MUST have networks as every bank can’t connect to every consumer/merchant. Effective Bank networks (aka rails) are NOT a commodity service, but one that allows the banks to leverage their unique ability to assume risk.
Near Term Impacts of Distributed Ledger Technology to Financial Services – Chain of Trust
© Starpoint LLP, 2022. No part of this site, blog.starpointllp.com, may be reproduced in whole or in part in any manner without the permission of the copyright owner.
Continuation of last week’s blog on “binding” and minting of tokens.
I’m currently immersed in DeFi, DAOs, Blockchain, …etc. Selected readings are at the end of this blog. Keeping Current in DeFi/DLT is almost impossible. I certainly invite comments and corrections to anything I’ve written below. While I have teams building services in this area, my perspective is biased. My purpose in writing is to stimulate discussion so don’t be shy in the comments, I welcome disagreement and discussion.
Topic today: What impacts will the $50B invested in FinTech/DLT/Crypto have on existing financial services in next 5-10 yrs? What is the summary CEO/Investor View?