PayThink

Global trade protectionism in other countries increasingly poses an obstacle to keep the market for payments networks competitive.

Compared to the United States, other geographies have seemingly had an easier task to bring real time payments to market – simply based on their size.

Embracing technology that gives innovators access to their platforms will provide banks with the upgrade they sorely need.

The Federal Reserve has made clear that higher rates are more a question of when, not if, but banks should let go of rate hikes being anything like they were under Alan Greenspan.

To account for the heightened questioning and investigations around the Panama Papers hack, people need to “legal-up” and issuers, financial institutions and processors need to “gear-up” for expected spikes in work related to due diligence, more precise monitoring of transactions, payments and sanctions filtering, possible ad-hoc examination and possible fines.

Well-established tech giants like Amazon and Google pose a more formidable threat to banks than the thousands of startups populating the fintech market.

The Electronic Payments Coalition's arguments supporting Visa in its legal battle with Walmart are not based in fact.

Unfortunately, as fraud prevention technology advances, so do fraudsters’ tactics. Think of the cat and the mouse. As merchants and financial institutions become better at thwarting traditional fraud techniques, criminals are forced to adapt. The onus is now on the financial institutions and merchants to stay ahead.

Mandatory arbitration policies are gaining attention as one of the hurdles to gender parity in the financial services industry. Catherine Flax of BNP Paribas is part of a vanguard of female foreign currency traders on Wall Street, though they still stand out in the "bros' club." Is the CFO role the new 'women's' job? Also, Ally's Carrie Sumlin and Wells Fargo's Secil Watson are recognized as Digital Bankers of the Year.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposal could have included flexibility for banks to offer payday loan alternatives, but the plan misses the mark.