The Big Questions in Payments

It's a while since my latest update.  For a while, I didn't think I was adding anything that you could not read on any other blog on payments, or technology in general.  I simply got too close to the speculation and gossip in the blogsphere about whether or not Apple were adding NFC to its iPhone 5 or what Google's payment solution would look like, etc.

It's not that these are not important issues.  Some of these product introductions could be important catalysts for mobile payments. 

Still, the vast majority of "innovation" in payments is not particularly innovative or transformational.  There is no question that there is a bubble in payment start-ups and that many average (or below-average) ideas are currently getting funding and being reported in the media and blogosphere.

Instead of continuing to write about all these over-reported issues, would therefore like to use this post to identify what i believe to be the key questions in payments for the next 5-10 years, and dedicate this blog to write about these issues.

So here goes:

• What technologies will be most influencial in the 21st Century commercial ecosystem (e.g. mobile, social media, geo-location, etc.)
• Where will payments fit in the 21st century commercial ecosystem?
• Who will own the customer relationship in this system?  
• What will be the role of tradition payments providers in this system?  What inherent advantages do these have that emerging payments providers will struggle to replicate?
• What infrastructure will the 21st century payment system run on?  Will new payments platforms continue to run on top of the existing rails or will they develop a new and simplified infrastructure?

That will do for now.  I will return in later posts with a more complete list of questions and then set out to form my views on these, more substantial issues.