Category: Payments

crypto, Payments, productivity, Risk2 Comments

Compare USDC (Circle) vs USDT (Tether) in 2025

Colin Henderson

The battle is now on. The newest StableCoin USDC offered by Circle is regulated with clearly defined regularly audited reserve requirements. Tender which has been around 5 years longer offers a StableCoin USDT. The challenge lies in the difference between the StableCoins and no regulation exists to define a StableCoin. USDT has loosely defined reserves comprising third party off balance sheet items and which can be deemed worthless to a banker. USDC on the other had requires US $ cash with no obtuse excuses for apparent reserve matching. I did some research across sites using Perplexity (not Google) and. here … Continue reading Compare USDC (Circle) vs USDT (Tether) in 2025

Payments

Lessons from Canada’s struggles with faster payments

Colin Henderson

Mon, Jun 26, 2023 Canada’s Real-Time Rail, a payments system that was originally set to go live this month, has been delayed again as the body that runs Canada’s domestic payments networks pauses to perform a second review of the project’s risks. Payments Canada, which drives Canada’s domestic payments networks through a board of independent directors this month said the RTR’s rollout would be indefinitely delayed. The first delay was announced last fall, leading to a three-month review of RTR’s operations plan and risks. RTR is a 24-hour instant payments network that’s been in development for years, enabling Canadians to … Continue reading Lessons from Canada’s struggles with faster payments

Payments

ING DIRECT Frees Canadians from Bank Fees with THRiVE ChequingTM, a No-Fee Daily Chequing Account that actually pays interest

Colin Henderson

Exciting news from ING this morning.  I knew this was coming but not the details till now.  For more details go to http://www.your185.ca/ which is a very cool URL relative to this product. I have been preaching for some time that bank product design since 2007 is not really attacking the core aspect of post crisis consumer need which I would characterise as features that support a deleveraging environment, where people saving and paying down debt is the defining average consumer strategy.  This new product from ING supports that strategy with a full featured yet cheap chequing facility. ING Direct … Continue reading ING DIRECT Frees Canadians from Bank Fees with THRiVE ChequingTM, a No-Fee Daily Chequing Account that actually pays interest

Payments

A model to help understand mobile payments | Glenbrook

Colin Henderson

The world of payments is mysterious and confusing to most bankers, and mobile payments is orders of magnitude worse.  Glenbrook operate on a simple categorisation that helps to follow.  This is a nice review of CTIA Wirleless conference just held at Las Vegas. Mobile Payment Themes from CTIA | PaymentsViews Point of Sale (POS), eCommerce, Person-to-Person, Bill Payment and B2B Technorati Tags: payments,glenbrook Continue reading A model to help understand mobile payments | Glenbrook

Payments, SEPA, US

Non Cash Growth as a barometer of Payment Innovation

Colin Henderson

CapGemini have come out with their World Payments Report – 2009 [pdf 60 pages]. Lots of statistics, but the one that leapt out at me is this. Japan stands out as a growth leader, despite being a mature economy.   Certainly their growth potential is large given the traditional consumer cash economy, but I have to look at the North American lowly 5% and wonder that lack of innovation in payments is not a driver. Certainly there remains lots of cash transactions to convert to payments but nominal innovation in the works to migrate to electronic.  The report notes that cash … Continue reading Non Cash Growth as a barometer of Payment Innovation

Payments2 Comments

Bring the banking experience forward to the transactional experience

Colin Henderson

There is an enormous intelligence in this paragraph from Dave. It centres on the reality that with each transaction, a consumer is making a decision about their banking service. That service may be merely a payment card, or it may be a BarclaysBofALloyds Card. it doesn’t matter. What has really happened is that the product experience has transferred from the old view of product, the bank account, to the new view, which is the experience. The experience occurs at the ATM, the POS terminal, the online banking session, the iphone app (oops you haven’t got that!). The customer experience is … Continue reading Bring the banking experience forward to the transactional experience

Payments2 Comments

Report: “The Role of Convenience and Risk in Consumers’ Means of Payment” | Bank of Canada

Colin Henderson

This is an unusual but insightful new working paper released today, on what the Bank of Canada refer to, in a somewhat quirky fashion, as “means of payment”. The survey and analysis compares use of cash, debit and credit. What is insightful, is that after establishing the consumer view on the three payment methods it tries to get at why people feel this way. When I asked Dave Birch the other day – what is the right strategy of banks and payments providers to increase their volumes? …. his answer was simple – increase share by taking it from cash. … Continue reading Report: “The Role of Convenience and Risk in Consumers’ Means of Payment” | Bank of Canada

Payments1 Comment

A chat with Dave Birch | whirlwind review of changes in financial services

Colin Henderson

Today I had the pleasure of a chat with Dave while he visited Toronto on business. Inevitably the conversation weaved in and around banks, payments, and what is wrong with both. As we chatted it is evident there is much change going on in the world of financial services, and that change may or may not be as expected. It appears banks are not innovating much anywhere at the moment as predicted, while on the payments front there is a host of activity and very different activity in many parts of the world. This fits with my general theme of … Continue reading A chat with Dave Birch | whirlwind review of changes in financial services

Payments

German and French banks push ahead with new debit card scheme | Finextra

Colin Henderson

Not often we see a plausible alternative in the payments space from banks, but here is one in the works. German and French banks push ahead with new debit card scheme | finextra Bundesbank board member Hans Georg Fabritius told the conference that a Visa and MasterCard duopoly is “an unsatisfying vision” for political and economic reasons. However, he warned that while the French and German project, called Monnet, is “promising” it is only a concept and he would want other countries to join in. Continue reading German and French banks push ahead with new debit card scheme | Finextra