¿Has Visto Tu Tarjeta de Crédito Últimamente? [Have You Seen Your Credit Card Lately?]

Payments is a global business with local flavors. The following blog is part of a series looking at the payment industry in Latin America. This blog looks at the "invisible card" as you go about your daily routines. The post is available below in both Spanish and English.

eCommerce Payments Optimization as a Merchant Growth Strategy

In the majority of developed markets, store-based retail sales are shrinking while eCommerce and mCommerce grow at 10- 20% annually. Consequently, merchants are focused on digital commerce growth opportunities more than ever before.

Assessing the impact of the MIF Regulation interchange fee caps

The European Regulation on Interchange Fees for Card-based Payments (or the MIF Regulation for short) came into effect in December 2015. Comprised of four main areas—interchange fee caps, acquirer pricing transparency, the separation of card schemes and processing, and other supporting rules—the regulation will have a profound impact upon the European payments industry and has the potential to reshape the eCommerce payments landscape. No area, however, is poised to cause more of a commotion than the interchange fee caps. Acquirers, card issuers, and payment service providers are all affected, but the impact of interchange fee caps—and what it means for their businesses—varies considerably.

ACI Empowering Girls to Code

This summer, ACI had the distinct pleasure of hosting a ‘Coding for Girls’ camp in Omaha, with plans now underway to host additional camps every quarter. It should come as no surprise that women are underrepresented in tech and view tech-related hobbies as a complex, male-driven endeavor. And as such, young women frequently avoid coding altogether, so our great team embarked on this program for girls--introducing them to coding in a fun and interactive way.

Five or so payment stories, five rings = your Olympic payment preview (and a reminder not to stick your head in the water!)

Cue the athletes, start the music, release the doves… it’s time to shimmy down to your skimpy excuse for a bathing suit and head to Copacabana beach to celebrate the 2016 Rio Games (just don’t stick your head in the water)! For those of you lucky enough to be going to the Games, good for you; for the rest of us, we’ll have to read, listen and watch from afar…letting our imaginations fill in the blanks from the all-night parties I am sure will be rocking (and for those party-goers, don’t stick your heads in the water). My Rantings cohort and I will be among those watching from afar, with Mark likely focused on Michael Phelps and the other swimmers and me focused more on tennis player Leander Paes who’s participating in his seventh (7th!!!) Games. With that, we sat down for a virtual chat on payments and Rio.

Higher Ed eCommerce Gurus on How to Make Students and Staff Happy

I love how honestly and openly schools tell each other what works and what doesn’t. Spalding University and Indiana Wesleyan University recently chatted about how they make students and staff happy. I wish you could have joined us for this eCommerce discussion for clients of Colleague® by Ellucian But you don’t have to miss out on the best quotes. Here are some of our handpicked highlights.

Alarming Brazilian card fraud trends & outlandish risky behavior

In a recent report “Global Consumers: Losing Confidence In The Battle Against Fraud,” it was found that 30% of consumers have experienced card fraud in the past five years. Against a backdrop of 2,260 confirmed data breaches in 2015 and over 4 billion records stolen since in 2013, consumers are losing faith in the ability of providers to protect them.

South African card fraud trends & risky consumer behavior

In conjunction with the PASA International Payments Conference this week, we decided to take a look at some recent consumer fraud data from the host nation, South Africa. The market is very similar to the global averages, in that a shockingly high number of consumers continue to experience card fraud. Despite the number of fraud attacks and breaches, consumers in South Africa continue to engage in risky behavior such as providing information in phishing attempts and writing down their PIN numbers.

2016 (Mid) Year in Payments Review

Ahhh summer - The Fourth of July (celebrating the original Brexit), Major League Baseball’s All-Star game (swap out the All-Star Game for UEFA Euro or Copa America for our friends off our shores) and the countdown to the lighting of the Olympic cauldron… the telltale signs that summer is in full swing and we have officially moved into the year’s third quarter. With all the pomp and circumstance of the continuous celebrations and backyard barbeques, I took some time to jot down my thoughts on the first half of 2016, and what I am excited to see unfold in the coming weeks and months as we march toward our fall conference schedule and the all-important holiday shopping season (22 weekends left until Christmas, hope you stocked up on Prime Day last week).

How will you pay for your…cake by the ocean?

Ahh, summer. I don’t have that summertime, summertime sadness nor do I like the Motel’s Suddenly Last Summer. But with summer now in full gear, I am one to wax poetic about spending those countless days of younger yore in Newport (and Middletown), RI, while my Rantings cohort has been a long-time (part-time) resident of Cape Cod. But we’re not here to debate which beaches are better (because there’s no debate that RI’s beaches are superior, though Welfleet’s Beachcomber is among my favorite all-time summer bars). We’re here to rant about more prudent topics…like bucket lists, not buckets full of delicious steamers; in this case, we’re referring to summer fintech bucket lists (or perhaps summer fintech wish lists).

The new payments ecosystem: fast, open and disruptive

Sitting at the PayExpo event in London last week, you could feel the excitement that the payment industry is generating. Slightly weird feeling when I remember telling friends 15 years ago about payment trends (as you do) and watching their eyes glaze over. Now mobile wallets such as Apple/ Samsung Pay or AliPay; Fin-Tech payment intermediaries such as Transferwise or HiFX; sharing economy evangelists such as AirBnB or Uber; challenger banks like Mondo or Atom Bank—they’re making payments trendy, exciting and relevant to all.

Over 2/3 of Asian payment players see their business being disrupted by new technologies and entrants

One of the benefits of working for a global company is the ability to speak to clients and colleagues from all over the world. During one of our lively discussions we talked about the commonalities across the globe and the differences. We decided to start testing our hypothesis – that banks, merchants and financial intermediaries have more in common in different locations than they tend to think. Of course, local culture, practices and languages are different but the big strategic forces they are facing are the same.