Payments on Fire™

A 2022 report from the CFPB titled Buy Now, Pay Later: Market trends and consumer impacts noted that from 2019 to 2021, the dollar volume of BNPL originations through five lenders surveyed grew by 1,092 percent, from $2 billion to $24.2 billion. BNPL adoption continues, not just in the US but globally, making it one of the most watched payment methods in the world.  BNPL’s rapid ascent has raised questions about its use: Who is choosing to use BNPL? Is it helpful or harmful to consumers’ credit and overall financial well-being? Does it improve financial inclusion? Is it displacing other forms of payment at checkout? A quick online search leads to mixed data points and inconsistent findings, often based on modest sample sizes and extrapolations. To answer these questions, we sat down with Kristin Carlson, Global Products and Analytics Data Scientist, and Zach Tondre, Director of Credit Risk Market Planning at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, who conducted a longitudinal study to obtain insight into these and other questions.  

In this episode, we explore the intersection of three significant payment trends: helping small businesses modernize their payment acceptance options, embedded finance, and the consumer lending phenomenon known as  Buy Now, Pay Later. We look at the potential market - asking ourselves if there is demand from small businesses and consumers. Then we unpack the opportunity using our BNPL “flywheel” to examine the critical success factors for any BNPL solution. Yvette Bohanan and Debbie Bartoo are joined by Bobby Tzekin, Founder and CEO of Wisetack (and Glenbrook Payments Boot Camp alumnus) to examine how technology, consumer and small business demand, and banking are opening up a very large market in the BNPL space - one that has a lot of potential and a lot of nuance.

In this episode, we are taking a closer look at the relationship underpinning much fintech innovation in payments – the fintech, bank, and BaaS trilogy. These 3-way partnerships have spurred innovation, increased access to financial services, and created offerings that appeal to a broad range of businesses and consumers. But in the context of these 3-way partnerships, new and existing risks abound, and relationships between counterparties are not well-established – making this a perfect haven for bad actors. Join us as we explore the current state of payments risk management across these alliances, and discuss the opportunities to make this new landscape safe, strong, and sustainable.  

There are a lot of headlines in the payments world. Payments News is Glenbrook’s curated news feed of the headlines that matter most every day, but we’ll readily acknowledge that it can be a lot to digest. That’s why we’ve introduced Payments Post, a month-end roundup of the news items that got us talking as a team along with some commentary about why we think they’re particularly important to the direction of the industry. Glenbrook’s Justin Pituch joins Yvette Bohanan in this Fanning the Flames episode to discuss the implications of the top April headlines, which were all related to account-to-account (A2A) payments. 

Cloud-based platforms, machine learning that increasingly improves or eliminates routine tasks, the phenomenon of “everything” as a service - platforms that stand on their own and tech stacks that embed complex capabilities into other software with minimal coding - these are just some of the technologies reshaping what is commonly referred to as “back office” financial operations. At the same time, these technologies are reshaping the customer journey - particularly when it comes to payments. New payment experiences facilitated by digital wallets, digital currencies, fast payment systems, and sophisticated transaction monitoring tools are increasing sales, lowering costs, enabling global expansion, unlocking new revenue streams, and speeding up settlement cycles. However, as we know, a critical component for maximizing any technology investment is the leadership of an organization. In this case, the relationship between the payments leader and the Chief Financial Officer is front and center. In this episode, Yvette Bohanan is joined by Vivek Sharma, Head of Revenue and Financial Management at Stripe, to consider the importance of this relationship and how, by joining forces, these leaders can help the C-Suite achieve the organization’s broader strategic objectives.  

Wrapping up our three part series exploring Brazil’s Pix, Carlos Brandt, Head of Management and Operations for Pix at the Central Bank of Brazil, sits down with Yvette Bohanan and Elizabeth McQuerry to discuss some of the keys to Pix success and what the future looks like as Pix continues to transform Brazil’s payments landscape.

In the second installment of our series on Pix, Carlos Netto, CEO and Co-Founder of Matera and Sarah Hoisington, Vice-President of Strategy and Marketing discuss what makes Pix “tick", and the challenges and opportunities presented to the banks responsible to implement this new payment system.

There are a lot of headlines in the payments world. PaymentsNews is Glenbrook’s curated news feed of the headlines that matter most every day, but we’ll readily acknowledge that it can be a lot to digest. That’s why we’ve introduced PaymentsPost, a month-end roundup of the news items that got us talking as a team along with some commentary about why we think they’re particularly important to the direction of the industry.  Glenbrook’s Justin Pituch joins Yvette Bohanan in this Fanning the Flames episode to discuss the implications of the top March headlines, including stumbling blocks for fintechs and their sponsor banks, a bank-led battle for the checkout page, and a clearer view of the path forward for U.S. fast payments.   

Call them what you will - Instant Payment Systems, Fast Payment Systems, Real Time Payments - or by their brands UPI, RTP® and more - these payment systems are experiencing success around the world. As the US stands weeks away from launching FedNow, we decided to take a closer look at the success of one of the hottest newcomers to the instant payments scene - Brazil’s Pix. As it turns out, there is much to be learned from success. Launched in November 2020, in just 2 years Pix had processed R$13 Trillion. Remarkable as that statistic is, it is more impressive when you realize that within 7 months of its launch, Pix was processing more volume than credit documents (DOC), electronic transfers (TED), and bank slips combined. By February of 2022, Pix had overtaken debit and credit card transaction volumes. By December of 2022 Pix broke a record - processing more than 100 million transactions in 24 hours. If that is not enough, it looks to be accomplishing what many countries hope for with a new fast payment system - Pix has moved the needle on the financially underserved, shifting from 50% of the population being unbanked to 75% of the population using Pix. In this first episode of a 3-part series, Yvette Bohanan sits down with Cici Northup, Joanna Wisniecka, and Elizabeth McQuerry to discuss the “state of play” for fast payment systems and the key questions to ask about what the future holds for all of us as the world enters a phase of transformative modernization.  

In this latest episode of Fanning the Flames, Yvette Bohanan catches up with Joanna Wisniecka and Cici Northup after their recent attendance at the 2023 Payments Summit and the Fintech: Innovation, Inclusion, and Risks Conference. Listen in to hear why “FOMO is not the answer” when implementing fast payments (or anything, really), and their other key takeaways on the digital currencies and fraud topics.  Joanna is currently on the road again at the Women in Payments USA Symposium, moderating a panel on fast cross-border payments. If you are there, be sure to connect with her!