Are We Nearing Peak Card [BETTER]

The New York Fed also issued a new blog in conjunction with the report, which highlights how household debt has evolved in 2016 overall, and how its current composition and performance compare to when total debt previously peaked in 2008.

Are We Nearing Peak Card

"Debt held by Americans is approaching its previous peak, yet its composition today is vastly different as the growth in balances has been driven by non-housing debt," said Wilbert van der Klaauw, senior vice president at the New York Fed. "Since reaching a trough in mid-2013, the rebound in household debt has been led by student debt and auto debt, with only sluggish growth in mortgage debt."

About the report The Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Household Debt and Credit Report provides unique data and insight into the credit conditions and activity of U.S. consumers. Based on data from the New York Fed's Consumer Credit Panel, a nationally representative sample drawn from anonymized Equifax credit data, the report provides a quarterly snapshot of household trends in borrowing and indebtedness, including data about mortgages, student loans, credit cards, auto loans and delinquencies. The report aims to help community groups, small businesses, state and local governments and the public to better understand, monitor and respond to trends in borrowing and indebtedness at the household level. Sections of the report are presented as interactive graphs on the New York Fed's Household Credit web page and the full report is available for download.

Here in the UK, the Treasury has been undertaking a Payments Landscape Review that sets out some high level aims for the sector and has published its response to the consultations. These include a call to unlock open banking-enabled payments safely and securely to allow consumers to pay for goods and services both in store and online directly from accounts. Many observers expect that this will provide an alternative to credit and debit cards, creating competition for the existing infrastructure and players to give consumers and businesses more choice between payment mechanisms. It will also (and personally I am more interested in this agenda) create new opportunities for fintechs to build a new generation of payment products (i.e. rather than attempting to emulate 70 year-old card products that combine authentication, authorisation, credit, convenience, cash replacement and so on in a single bundle).

The account-to-account (A2A) back end for these new propositions is coming together and it was interesting to see that Plaid is making a move into this space with a set of strong payment partners in North America and Europe - including Square SQ , Dwolla and Currencycloud (recently acquired by Visa V ) - that will integrate Plaid into their processing systems for payments direct from bank accounts. This means we will soon see "pay from your bank account" options being presented by merchants, billers and wallets. Those organisations would present this alongside conventional payment card options alongside other payment methods, such as credit or debit cards. I can imagine, however, that many organisations will start tenderly steering toward this lower cost, more secure option: It won't be long before merchants are offering double points or whatever to encourage consumers to send money directly from their bank account to the merchant's bank account.

Here's an example of the kind of proposition this drives: kevin. This is a Lithuanian payments startup that just secured $10 million in new capital in a seed funding round co-led by OTB Ventures and Speedinvest, two of Europe's leading venture capital investors in early-stage European technology companies. The round also included OpenOcean and Javier Perez's Global PayTech Ventures. Their point-of-sale product enables customers to pay from their bank accounts through existing card terminals using NFC technology. Tadas Tamosiunas, CEO and co-founder claims that up to 40% of their customers' transactions are being made directly open banking via mobile apps and when it comes to online payments it's more than 70%. They already have 2,700 merchants in 15 markets, including Sweden, Finland, Norway, Poland, Netherlands and Portugal so clearly merchants are open to alternatives to payments based on card rails.

We are seeing serious propositions emerge to challenge cards. Look at travel, where Emirates was the first airline to go live with the IATA/Deutsche Bank "IATAPay". This enables real-time payments from customers who book tickets through the airline website, with money transferred directly to the carrier without the intervention of third parties. It charges a fixed fee of a few cents per ticket. The target (for Emirates and other airlines) is credit cards. (Right now around two-thirds of their tickets are paid for by credit card, while the remainder is cleared through country-specific payment options.)

Ron Shevlin is the Chief Research Officer at Cornerstone Advisors, where his research on banking and fintech trends helps shape the direction of financial institutions and fintechs. Author of the Fintech Snark Tank on Forbes and host of the What's Going On in Banking podcast, Ron is ranked among the top fintech influencers globally and is a frequent keynote speaker at banking and fintech industry events. Connect with Ron on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Daniel is Founder and CEO of FXC Intelligence, a financial data company specializing in the cross-border payments, cards and ecommerce industries. Daniel is a leading influencer in the cross-border payments space globally. He is frequently invited to speak at industry conferences and provide insights and data on the sector. His weekly industry newsletter is the most widely read in the international payments market.

I'm a seasoned fintech researcher and consultant, driving customer-focused innovation in the industry. I'm passionate about using emerging technologies and business models to increase financial inclusion, including decentralized finance, embedded finance, and open banking. As a podcast host and co-founder of both 11:FS and Digital Mags, my research and insights empower banks and fintechs to create user-centric products. As a Partner at Pacemakers, I advise large banks and firms on fintech investment, acquisitions, and partnerships. I also teach digital finance at Manchester Business School and CFTE, sharing my expertise in creating best-in-class customer experiences. As a writer and keynote speaker, I cover European product, regulatory, and tech trends, drawing on extensive experience in London, Berlin, Scandinavia, and Lisbon

Think of poker playing. A room full of novices with poorly honed card-playing skills are easy prey for intermediate players, while that same intermediate player might be in over their head in a room of high-rolling seasoned professionals.

Clash Royale has just rolled out its Epic Quests update. It's a bit of a beast, including everything from a quickfire new Touchdown mode that ditches towers altogether in favour of something that feels like American Football (I think it's great, but I'm in the minority by the looks of things; most agree it relies too heavily on the cards you get in the draft), to mirror battles, a revamped shop and a bunch of balance changes. But the first thing I noticed when logging in is that the free chests are gone, and replaced with a new Quests system.

Up until now, Clash Royale has given players a couple of free chests every day, just as a reward for logging in. These chests generally included low-level cards and a bit of in-game cash, but the RNG could sometimes play in your favour. I got at least one Legendary out of a free chest, and even when I was not playing regularly I'd still head in every day to collect my reward.

This is presumably the kind of behaviour that the Epic Quests update is trying to knock on the head. If you're logging in, you now get a daily gift that increases in generosity the more days you chain together, but the emphasis is firmly back on actually playing the game to unlock proper rewards. There's the standard arena ladder, but there are also new quests that, by the looks of things, encourage you to mix up your standard deck by using certain cards or types of cards on the battlefield. 041b061a72