Tag Archives: card

Stablecoins: Near-Term Predictions

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12 Page Blog

Key Themes

  • Stablecoin growth is booming in the areas of remittance, cross-border, disbursement, and B2B supply chain. 

  • Card volumes face no threat as they remain the “last mile” of use and an economic model for stable coin issuers. 

  • The STABLE and GENIUS acts are driving significant central bank discussions, with divergent views on response in Europe. 

  • Asia is developing differently, with the effectiveness of Ukraine sanctions and fear of dollarization driving central banks to a CBDC approach.

  • The value of any network corresponds to the combined investment made by all parties around it. Stablecoin is the fastest-growing network and at the core of most FinTech investments.

  • PayPal, and legacy remittance providers are under a substantial near term threat

  • Expect big tech and mobile platforms to support stablecoins in new ways (ex recurring payments and emerging markets). 

  • A small number of low profit Banking segments are also at risk, as Stablecoin issuers become banks and threaten niche payment providers like Cash App, as well as specialists in categories like MSB, NBFCs, ELMI, …etc.

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Capital One’s Acquisition of Discover – Set to Reinvent Retail Banking?

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An Update on the Future of Retail Banking – April 2025 By Thomas Noyes

With the conditional approval from the OCC on April 17, 2025, Capital One’s (COF) acquisition of Discover Financial Services (DFS) marks one of the most transformative events in U.S. retail banking in over a decade. While prior large-bank deals often focused on scale, this one signals a strategic reinvention. Capital One, long admired for its technical prowess, is poised to blur the traditional boundaries between credit, savings, and checking—challenging the conventional “retail bank” construct. This merger represents not just an expansion of balance sheet or customers, but a redefinition of what banking can look like in the age of AI, embedded finance, and consumer control.

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MRC Recap – Looking up – A Retailers Perspective On Payments

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I’m glad I made the decision to attend my very first Merchant Risk Council event this week. For those that don’t know, MRC Vegas is the second largest payment event in the US (after M2020) but with a VERY different focus. MRC is attended by the “hands on” payment leaders from all the top merchants and the vendors that serve them: Stripe, Adyen, PayPal, V, MA, risk, fraud,  …. Etc. Whereas M2020 is attended by FinTech, Crypto, Venture, Institutional investor, and strategy audiences, MRC is much more focused on making payments work. 

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Google’s Browser Tokens Payments

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Short Blog – Chrome AutoFill 

I missed a key development 6 months ago: Google’s Chrome autofill began using network tokens in May 2022 (see article) after the Google Wallet relauch which was announced as part of Google I/O. Google now allows issuers to provision cards to the mobile device and to the browser desperately (see Web Push Provisioning) using network tokenization services (VTS/MDES).  I discussed this in detail in my 2016 post Browser Tokens. 

A Correction to previous blogs. Google’s Chrome autofil has network tokens, but (within the US) does not obtain a liability shift. For Google autofill to get a liability shift (within network rules), they would need to enable the 3DS 2.2 authentication features. Exceptions to 3DS 2.2 are where Issuer has provisioned card with Cryptogram (ie ApplePay card provisioned into wallet by bank). See Mastercard API doc for detail.

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Google’s “Bank” Plans

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Summary – Google is not becoming a bank, but rather enabling:

  1. New integrated tools that will provide the BEST mobile bank experience
  2. Instant account opening
  3. Consumer incentives that will unlock the power of data (w/ consumer’s consent)
  4. New predictive analytics, recommendations, alerts, reminders, coupons, offers and engagement

Public PR

Over last 6 months or so we have seen several Press Releases relating to Google’s bank partnerships:

“We had confirmed earlier that we are exploring how we can partner with banks and credit unions in the U.S. to offer digital bank accounts through Google Pay, helping their customers benefit from useful insights and budgeting tools, while keeping their money in an FDIC or NCUA-insured account,” stated the release.

Smart, according to Google, because it will provide its checking accountholders with money management tips to optimize and manage the funds in those accounts – funds linked to payments and identity credentials that consumers can use to buy things, pay bills and send money to others in and outside the Google ecosystem.

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PayPals New Plastic

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No Mastercard Logo on this one…

Quite impressed that they have pulled this together.. a new card network…

This is more than a decoupled debit.. although PayPal could choose to assume settlement risk through either ACH, stored debit card (or even ATM??).  Paypal has the facilities to provide lending via BillMeLater (previous post) or to a consumer’s other preferred lender (via stored card). They are completely in control of a much larger value proposition as well.. with integrated rewards and a 3 party financial network that will compete with Discover and Amex.

I’m very, very impressed.. this is a new product that could completely disrupt traditional credit cards. Not only in rewards, coupons and incentives.. but in interest rates for every single purchase. This could be the only card you carry.. Forget about the “pay by phone number”.. the product innovation here is much more interesting than how it is delivered (plastic, phone number, bump, …).

Paypal also has a new site (beta) a few screen shots of which are below.

This new plastic is currently only accepted at Home Depot. My understanding it that Chase Payment Tech will be a lead acquirer for this new Product… I’m sure Vantive, FirstData … et.al will not be far behind.  I will attempt a more thoughtful analysis later… thoughts appreciated.