I don’t write about politics, because I am not a political creature. However, I felt compelled to write about this subject after Europe’s soul-searching over its identity since the Irish threw out the EU Treaty. The fact that the Constitution and the Treaty are unwanted does not de-stabilise our banking efforts under the Payment Services…
Intriguing discussions today about the Oyster Card in London. This is the contactless card operated by Transport for London (TfL) to allow everyone to travel across the London public transport system without using cash. It’s basically a prepaid contactless card, like the Octopus Card in Hong Kong or the New York Subway Card. Oyster was…
There was a lot of buzz around this year’s Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s Payments Conference, “Payments Fraud: Perception versus Reality”. First, there’s the sheer numbers involved. For example, it is estimated that each year $3.5 billion worth of chargeback losses occur in the USA through fraudulent transactions, according to Orbitz. Bruce Cundiff of Javelin…
Last night’s debate, “This house believes our current authentication and identification methods are good enough”, was a healthy one and focused primarily upon card authentication in retail transactions. We started with the case for. The motion was proposed by one of the major card processing firms, who said that the card firms are trying to…
Last night’s debate, “This house believes our current authentication and identification methods are good enough”, was a healthy one and focused primarily upon card authentication in retail transactions. We started with the case for. The motion was proposed by one of the major card processing firms, who said that the card firms are trying to…
Last night’s debate, “This house believes our current authentication and identification methods are good enough”, was a healthy one and focused primarily upon card authentication in retail transactions. We started with the case for. The motion was proposed by one of the major card processing firms, who said that the card firms are trying to…
Today is a day that’s all about authentication, identification and verification. First, I have been asked to make a speech at a payments conference all about how to minimise risk; and, second, we have a meeting of the Financial Services Club this evening, in the form of an Oxford Society style Debate with the motion:…
Front Page of Business Week today: Banks versus Consumers – who wins? The focus is upon credit cards and debt collections and, with American credit-card debt hitting a record high of $957 billion in Q1 2008, up 8% from the previous year, according to Federal Reserve data, this is a growing market. One of the…
As you walk the streets of Rome, you find modern and ancient intertwined. The streets are full of gorgeous clothes from designers ranging from Salvatore Ferragano to Versace, Louis Vuitton to Gucci, Prada to Armani. All the names are here in beautifully presented shops that ooze money. These shops are squeezed into streets laid with…
