It's a good thing professionals in the payments industry, from CEOs to merchant level salespeople, typically aren’t the kind of folks who rely on business as usual. They embrace change and capitalize on it, while also making innovations of their own for others to embrace, or not. A big change lapping on U.S. shores is open banking, which has been streaming through the European market for some time.
This issue's lead article explores what open banking is, ways in which it fosters healthy competition and how companies are incorporating it to better serve the needs of today's customers. Disruption is coming, as always, but the good news is that opportunity exists for payment pros to form new kinds of partnerships that employ open banking technologies.
More good news comes to us in the many press releases we receive from you, our readers. We post your announcements each weekday under News From the Wire on our homepage and include a portion of them in the Industry Update section of each issue. These typically include new awards and recognition, partnerships, acquisitions, executive appointments, and updated guidelines and research.
Our contributing writers bring good news, informed perspectives and helpful advice, as well. In this issue, you'll find discussions of the pros and cons of three payfac models—the referral, full and hybrid models; how the pandemic created the need to reassess the way we categorize and manage high- and low-risk merchants; the imperative for reps selling card acceptance as an alternative payment method to know how SMB prospects borrow funds and the costs associated with that; and why, in the wake of the pandemic, we cannot rely on past attrition to project a portfolio's future attrition and valuation.
News briefs herein also bring good tidings, including reports on the ETA's white paper detailing how fintech is addressing the financial services needs of the underserved; the likelihood that predatory lenders will face CFPB payback; FIS' taking the wraps off a cloud-based, software-as-a-service platform that supports account-to-account transactions; the SEAA's plans to reopen the in-person tradeshow season with a safe, distanced event; and the Fed's push for more choice in debit card routing. Product and company profiles in this issue also demonstrate just how strong our sector is.
To let us shine the spotlight on your business, send your news to press@greensheet.com. And please send your feedback at greensheet@greensheet.com. 
The Green Sheet Inc. is now a proud affiliate of Bankcard Life, a premier community that provides industry-leading training and resources for payment professionals. Click here for more information.
Notice to readers: These are archived articles. Contact names or information may be out of date. We regret any inconvenience.
Prev Next
