Wallets and Networks: The Backbone of Digital Transactions

Stimulating community discussion is the #1 reason I write this blog. The intersection of payments, banking, and technology is evolving rapidly, and I’m fortunate to engage with great minds like Dave Birch and new friends like Simon Taylor. Dave’s recent post on crypto predictions got me thinking about a topic I keep coming back to—wallets and networks.

As a former banker, I’m naturally more skeptical about FinTechs disrupting the core of banking. Consumer behavior is incredibly difficult to change, and financial services are among the most competitive industries in the world. If there’s one concept where my perspective diverges from many thought leaders, it’s the power of bank networks (read more). These networks are the foundation of financial transactions, and they continue to define the way money moves.

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Real-Time Settlement Coming to US Cards?

US Payment Infrastructure is in the midst of completing a major renovation. 

  • The Clearing House (TCH) Real-Time Payment (RTP)
  • FedNow
  • JPM’s ONYX (now renamed Kinexsys)

Let me preempt the #1 question most of you are about to ask “are card volumes at risk”? Nope, why on earth would banks want to walk away from the most profitable retail banking product in the history of man (see Future of Retail Banking)!?

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Tokens and Binding 101

Let’s talk about tokens. When discussing tokens and payments, it’s important to clarify which category of tokens you’re talking about. Today, I’m not discussing NFTs; instead, I’m discussing card network tokens. It’s hard to believe I’ve been writing on this subject for almost 15 years. For a historical refresh, here are a few of my old blogs

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TCH RfP is Live (for Consumers)

Big congrats to TCH, and the 3 banks live with RfP. This is a major accomplishment. As I’ve written RfP is the most important transaction set for RTP. 

© Starpoint LLP, 2024. No part of this site, blog.starpointllp.com, may be reproduced or retransmitted, in whole or in part, in any manner without the permission of the copyright owner. Also see our Legal/Disclaimer (this is a highly opinionated and partially informed blog).

To get a view of what this looks like see this consumer support page from

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eCom – Politics and Scenarios

Frank Young – Contributor

What are banks talking about this week? How did Apple’s announcement impact them? While 15bps on 2% of eCom GDV is a nuisance, 15bps on 15% of eComm GDV is an earthquake. 

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ApplePay gets iOS Competition – Curve

© Starpoint LLP, 2024. No part of this site, blog.starpointllp.com, may be reproduced or retransmitted, in whole or in part, in any manner without the permission of the copyright owner. Also see our Legal/Disclaimer (this is a highly opinionated and partially informed blog).

The Times (London) Article – May 29 2024


In January of this year, Apple offered commitments to the EU to assuage their concerns about NFC payments and mobile wallets related to the EU’s Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA—see blog). Apple’s approach follows Google’s model in Host Card Emulation (HCE—see Apple Developer Doc).

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Visa Expands the Pipe

Flexible Credentials

© Starpoint LLP, 2024. No part of this site, blog.starpointllp.com, may be reproduced or retransmitted, in whole or in part, in any manner without the permission of the copyright owner.

Background

Visa’s network is the largest commercial network in the world, moving over $15T in volume over 4.3B cards in over 200 countries. Visa’s core is called VisaNet, a real-time messaging network between banks. They don’t move money but send instructions to and from banks, merchants, consumers and other approved third parties. The banks move the money, primarily through net settlement on ACH.  The beauty behind Visa’s network is its operating model, which allows thousands of partners to invest billions of dollars. To defeat Visa, you not only have to create a better network, but you must also create a better economic model for EVERYONE to switch, AND overcome the combined investment of all current stakeholders. This is why SEPA failed (see Power of Bank Networks). 

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A2A, Fed Now and “Instant” Payments – Threat to V/MA? Nope

Short Blog – Free Content

© Starpoint LLP, 2023. No part of this site, blog.starpointllp.com, may be reproduced or retransmitted in whole or in part in any manner without the permission of the copyright owner.

My good friend Dave Birch wrote a piece in Forbes last week on Account to Account transfer threat to V/MA. I wanted to provide an alternate view. This will likely be a multi-part blog.. today I’m starting with the consumer and the merchant (from a US perspective).

No new information for my frequent readers, just pulling together some of the latest data (see PIX below).

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DOJ Probe – Network Tokenization – 2023

It’s hard to believe I’ve been writing about payment tokenization for 11 yrs. Tokenization is an overloaded term with multiple definitions. Last week McKinsey wrote a fantastic article on crypto tokenization, this note is about the tokenization of card numbers (PAN to DPAN) performed by network tokenization services like Visa Tokenization Service (VTS) and Mastercard Digital Enablement Service (MDES). 

This week the US DOJ opened a probe into network tokenization services (Bloomberg). The specifics of the probe are not known

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Short Blog – US Paze and RTP – Consumer Terms

New consumer terms rolled out at several banks this week. As the former head of online and payment services at Wachvoai (40%+ of Wells) I had managed these agreements. Changes are a very big deal, usually less than once per year. Given my history with Wachovia I chose to review the Wells Fargo below agreement (JPM, BAC, and COF all have similar).

https://www.wellsfargo.com/online-banking/online-access-agreement/

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