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The key issue that this group will have to address to quid pro quo between merchants, merchant banks and cardholder banks. Tradionally, the quid pro quo has been between merchant and cardholder banks. Making merchants a part of the formula could be game changer.

Apple Card is a big deal. But, they have a long way to go to reach a critical mass. They need to figure out how they plan to be accepted at physical locations. For now it's like a private label card with limited use. I wish them success!

This is going to take 10 years to create a critical mass. I envision Apple will make “significant “ changes to its product especially in the acceptance area in the next 3 years

Bitcoin is NOT a mass market currency. It has little or no value in the marketplace. Remember the tulip bubble!

Why am I am surprised? Many banks like CapOne have rushed to the clould  thinking they have all their bases covered. Not so! Clould providers, especially Amazon, do not have 50 years  experience with running large enterprise platforms with sensitive customer data. After all expenses from this disaster are accounted for, CapOne will have realized that they should have taken a hybrid approach to cloud computing and realize that they should never put their customer at risk in the cloud.

I was a trusted advisor on a cloud payments projects and insisted that they use hardware encryption devices. Amazon told the client that their security software were correct. At that point I left the project.

Faster Payments will have a major impact on U.S. payments systems. Wire transfer, check and even credit and debit cards will experience disintermediation. The major banks will create their own connections with emerging Faster Payments networks; while, smaller institutions will continue to use third party processors. There will be multiple networks for Faster Payments as it is with credit and debit cards today. The evolution of Faster Payments services will first be P2P followed by B2B, then lastly C2B. Financial instutitions need to envision what payments will be 10 years from now; and then the plan accordingly. Everything will change including application systems, customer interactions, marketing and rules/regulations. Institutions need to prepare a payments plan including specific roadmap actions along with appropriate investment funding.

This is great news for consumers. The traditional banks have lost their innovation edge in the past 25 years. In the U.S. credit card pricing is a burden on many consumers. The industry still uses predatory pricing practices with lots of fees! Go Apple. Competition will be good for consumers.

Congratulations to IBM which is in a perfect position to deliver a great solution that fits the needs of banks. So much better than Bitcoin which has had identity and security problems.

This is great news. The challenge now is marketing and operations execution to realize revenue growth and cost savings. Full integration of people, processes and especially technology could take 5 to 7 years.

I hope the Google and IBM people have a few good people with at least 25 years each of core banking experience. The banking experience is far more important than what Google brings to the plate. The technology piece of the project is easy.