tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-187276002008-05-10T18:05:12.694+02:00Aneace Haddadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08119604490247753986noreply@blogger.comBlogger304125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18727600.post-63891475038228827702008-05-06T15:22:00.004+02:002008-05-06T15:28:01.609+02:00

The weather was gorgeous in Aix en Provence this weekend. I browsed through the antiques market on Cours Mirabeau on Sunday, where I found a few old magazine advertisements for banking products (what a geek, right???) There was a bit of synchronicity involved here. I had just read an op-ed piece by a banker reminding merchants of the old carbon imprint machine days, and how merchants should be

Aneace Haddadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08119604490247753986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18727600.post-28826390194625418652008-05-05T07:22:00.005+02:002008-05-05T07:37:13.033+02:00

Mandated reductions in interchange fees in Australia were supposed to cause retail prices to drop, directly benefiting consumers. The whole idea is that interchange is a “hidden fee” that retailers bundle into their prices, and that a reduction in fees charged to merchants would benefit customers. Sounds like basic, logical thinking that you would find in a high school economics and civics class,

Aneace Haddadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08119604490247753986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18727600.post-84463497633949143962008-05-02T10:49:00.003+02:002008-05-02T10:56:44.355+02:00

Recently, two payments journalists in two separate interviews asked me similar questions on trends in card loyalty and rewards programs. Here is a paraphrase of some of the questions, along with my answers. “Card rewards programs appear in Europe to be merchant based whereas in the US the bank funds the rewards directly. Why do programs work so differently between the US and Europe?” In fact,

Aneace Haddadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08119604490247753986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18727600.post-606554142505590602008-05-01T08:38:00.005+02:002008-05-01T08:51:13.785+02:00

I just noticed that two of Welcome's customers have been shortlisted for this year's Cards International Global Awards. Of the four banks that are shortlisted in the category Best innovation in a loyalty programme, two use Welcome's XLS software. Bank of the Philippine Islands - BPI Express Credit Real Thrills Kasikornbank Smart Shopping Programme Congratulations to both for being shortlisted!

Aneace Haddadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08119604490247753986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18727600.post-53204117924053120312008-04-30T07:25:00.005+02:002008-04-30T07:42:39.564+02:00

I have just read “Loyalty 2.0”, a white paper by Karen L. Webster, president of consulting firm Market Platform Dynamics. Loyalty programs are so mature today that it seems that every company has one. Yet the white paper points out that eight of the top ten brands in North America don’t offer a rewards program and probably never will. The list includes two notable retailers, Wal-Mart and

Aneace Haddadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08119604490247753986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18727600.post-64655269967669360082008-04-28T16:41:00.005+02:002008-04-28T16:48:07.055+02:00

Lots of merchants already print promotions and marketing messages at the bottom of till receipts, but they are based only on the amount the customer spends in one transaction. The next step is to print these offers and messages at the bottom of credit and debit card receipts, using a richer set of trigger criteria, like the date of the customer's last visit, or the number of visits or amount

Aneace Haddadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08119604490247753986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18727600.post-26672490735545067812008-04-26T10:17:00.002+02:002008-04-26T10:21:35.174+02:00

Chris Skinner of Balatro gives more detail on the blogger panel at the Digital Money Forum in London. Apparently, while we were sitting on the panel, another member was using Twitter to chat with several audience members! "One of our panel was using Twitter during this discussion. His twitter stated that the moderator talked too much and various folks in the audience agreed on Twitter. This was

Aneace Haddadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08119604490247753986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18727600.post-89150034639373221402008-04-24T16:10:00.003+02:002008-04-24T16:27:39.490+02:00

Whenever payment people talk about using a mobile phone to pay at a physical retailer, like Starbucks or Carrefour, the discussion will almost always gravitate towards the difficulty of convincing merchants to accept mobile payments. Many mobile payment schemes and pilots are still funded by the scheme operator, who effectively subsidizes merchant acceptance. This has come up both yesterday and

Aneace Haddadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08119604490247753986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18727600.post-72996102215554487452008-04-24T11:42:00.003+02:002008-04-24T11:46:18.861+02:00

First Data's John Chaplin, speaking at the Digital Money Forum in London, makes eight predictions on the impact of SEPA. Before I go through the predictions, I want to first say that the arguments were quite intelligent and persuasive. I found myself analyzing each prediction as John made his argument, then switched and began analyzing why John, as a First Data executive, would be making the

Aneace Haddadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08119604490247753986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18727600.post-67823554800881158532008-04-24T11:37:00.002+02:002008-04-24T11:41:15.450+02:00

Charles Bryant, of the EBA got this question from the floor at today's Digital Money Forum: "Will there be a third debit card scheme in Europe?" Answer: "My gut feel is that yes, there will be. It will be a simple debit card, with an acceptance brand, and will combine all of the national brands that exist today. But everything is frozen right now, due to things like interchange uncertainties,

Aneace Haddadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08119604490247753986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18727600.post-9511492955074988362008-04-24T10:50:00.002+02:002008-04-24T10:53:50.519+02:00

Day 2 at the Digital Money Forum in London. In his intro today, Dave Birch made a comment that I found interesting. Many of us know that Western Union passed up on the telephone patent in 1871, saying that there was no money to be made in the technology. Of course, it eventually became huge, but only much later, in 1929. So all those guys in charge of Western Union in 1871 were absolutely right

Aneace Haddadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08119604490247753986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18727600.post-43155243214543375272008-04-23T16:08:00.002+02:002008-04-23T16:14:56.464+02:00

Speaking in London at the Digital Money Forum, Leo van Hove suggests that the only solution to the interchange problem is to raise the price of cash to match its cost, for example through an ATM charge. The dilemma is that no single bank will move first, and banks are not allowed to organize an industry-wide move. The solution proposed by van Hove is for competition authorities to allow banks to

Aneace Haddadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08119604490247753986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18727600.post-34046347392655219802008-04-23T13:20:00.002+02:002008-04-23T13:25:17.959+02:00

Charles Cohen, CEO of Probability and one of the speakers on the Digital Money Forum's panel on innovation, just made this interesting comment: "UK boards of large companies tend to be dominated by accountants. US boards tend to be dominated by lawyers. Now, technologists are moving up the organization and we are possibly in a generational change where in a few years boards will be dominated by

Aneace Haddadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08119604490247753986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18727600.post-20989562172951972612008-04-23T12:41:00.003+02:002008-04-23T12:48:04.301+02:00

I am in London now for Consult Hyperion's Digital Money Forum. There are around a hundred attendees listening to presentations on the future of money. Tomorrow I will be speaking on a panel called "Meet the bloggers" along with fellow bloggers Scott Loftesness, Colin Henderson, Chris Skinner and Dave Birch. Scott is posting in real-time here, and Colin is doing the same over here.

Aneace Haddadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08119604490247753986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18727600.post-30517198349310189682008-04-09T08:34:00.003+02:002008-04-09T08:43:27.695+02:00

Voici la présentation de mon intervention hier à Paris, au Forum Monétique 2008. Le titre: Comment valoriser le paiement auprès des commerçants? Peut-on renverser les tendances actuelles? SEPA, co-branding, lobbys de commerçants, consolidation des processeurs,… autant d’initiatives et de pressions qui mènent à la baisse des revenus des banques acquéreurs. Quelles sont donc les initiatives

Aneace Haddadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08119604490247753986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18727600.post-50058411202438763972008-03-26T10:42:00.004+01:002008-03-26T11:00:57.391+01:00

Google has been offering free payment processing to Internet merchants since they launched Google Checkout almost two years ago. Merchants get free credit and debit card processing when they also use Google Adwords, a direct marketing service that displays paying advertiser’s names alongside search results. Could a marketing subsidized payment processing model work for physical face-to-face

Aneace Haddadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08119604490247753986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18727600.post-18930643298063732482008-03-14T08:01:00.002+01:002008-03-14T08:04:40.660+01:00

Retailers are very pragmatic people. If something makes sense, works well and solves real problems, they’ll adopt it. Otherwise, no chance. While the banking community hypes up contactless cards and mobile payments, retailers are saying something different. Evan Schuman of StorefrontBacktalk writes about the problems he ran into when he tried using his contactless card: “Taking some cabs in New

Aneace Haddadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08119604490247753986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18727600.post-54170573190153556972008-03-14T04:10:00.001+01:002008-03-14T04:12:20.295+01:00

From CNN.

Aneace Haddadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08119604490247753986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18727600.post-52976295396665223762008-03-13T04:18:00.003+01:002008-03-13T04:28:38.223+01:00

OK, I know that’s a provocative title, but bear with me. My last post showed how printing targeted promotions at the bottom of POS receipts costs merchants a few cents per impression versus close to a dollar for traditional direct marketing campaigns. The customer checking out right now hasn’t been here in over a month? Print a special offer to encourage him to come back in the next few days.

Aneace Haddadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08119604490247753986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18727600.post-53503843686640894632008-03-11T04:38:00.003+01:002008-03-11T04:49:58.939+01:00

PIVAS – Payment Information Value Added Services: A platform that lets retailers deliver targeted promotions at the POS, via credit or debit card receipts (lots more here). A few of my prior blog posts provide some insight into the value of marketing rich payment services, mainly at a macro level. For example, there’s the Deloitte study that shows that merchants will pay 7-9% for a full payment

Aneace Haddadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08119604490247753986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18727600.post-36067739398894280042008-03-04T08:25:00.003+01:002008-03-04T08:30:42.072+01:00

This company has developed an interesting interchange based ROI story for banks. Here’s the pitch: “Bill Pay Solution Enables Card Issuing Financial Institutions to Earn $150 Per Consumer Per Year in New Interchange Revenue” (PaymentsNews recently reported on the company, Yodlee, and their press release.) I find this interesting because it is so direct and in your face. Who wouldn’t want to

Aneace Haddadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08119604490247753986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18727600.post-69624581216696862792008-03-03T09:16:00.002+01:002008-03-03T09:24:26.495+01:00

The average interchange rate in the US has increased by 22% in ten years, yet total actual fees charged to merchants, including interchange, have only increased by 11% (see Aite Group report, An Acquiring Paradox: Discounts Are Squeezed, But Spreads Are up). Acquirers appear to have swallowed a large portion of the increased interchange by lowering their own transaction fees, presumably in

Aneace Haddadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08119604490247753986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18727600.post-84588211203809370822008-03-03T04:07:00.004+01:002008-03-03T04:16:24.180+01:00

Two recent articles highlight the critical problems that contactless faces, which I’ve written about many times over the past couple of years. Now that the problems seem to be widely understood, I find myself writing much less about contactless and NFC payments. What in the world am I going to complain about now? The Charlotte Observer writes about Visa and MasterCard’s no-signature policy which

Aneace Haddadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08119604490247753986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18727600.post-30268855885670853392008-02-27T07:08:00.010+01:002008-02-27T08:27:17.101+01:00

We often think of Japan as a technologically advanced payments market where people regularly use their mobile phones or contactless cards to pay. The reality is that Japan remains strongly a cash based economy. I just got back from skiing in Hokkaido, an island in the northern part of Japan, in a village called Niseko, considered to be the best ski resort in Japan for fresh powdery snow, which

Aneace Haddadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08119604490247753986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18727600.post-38444081593233585912008-02-15T02:50:00.003+01:002008-02-27T08:28:10.044+01:00

The other day, a jewelry store clerk frowned when I handed her my Visa Platinum card. “Do you have another Visa card?” she asked. “Like a Visa Gold or Classic? The Platinum card costs us too much.” I hesitated. “I’ll have to add 2 percent if you pay with your Platinum card,” she said. I handed her my MasterCard debit card. No miles on that transaction. I’ve seen lots of steering and

Aneace Haddadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08119604490247753986noreply@blogger.com