Payments on Fire™

Over the past several episodes, we've been building a conversation about how stablecoins are reshaping the global payments landscape. These conversations surfaced something important: this isn't just a technology story. It's a story about access. And there's another critical piece of the puzzle: the infrastructure that makes stablecoin payments actually work on the ground in emerging markets. In this episode, Chris Maurice, the CEO and co-founder of Yellow Card, joins Drew Edmond to explore how stablecoins are transforming global payments, especially in emerging markets, by addressing liquidity issues, reducing costs, improving compliance transparency, and enabling faster cross-border transactions. Listen in as they highlight the challenges of legacy infrastructure, regulatory evolution, interoperability, and the evolving role of banks and technology platforms in this ecosystem.

It's an auspicious year and month for us at Glenbrook as on March 1, 2026 we mark the 25th anniversary of the founding of our firm, celebrating a quarter-century of pushing forward the frontiers of payments knowledge and strategy and our continuing efforts to build the broader global payments community. A lot has happened in payments over the last 25 years and there could be no better way to celebrate the progress of the industry and the firm than to talk to the people who played such seminal roles in shaping both: In this episode, we speak with Glenbrook's three founding partners - Carol Coye Benson, Scott Loftesness, and Allen Weinberg. Listen in as they recall the early days of the firm, discuss how Glenbrook's strategy work expanded to form our education and global practices, consider the evolution of the "payments professional", and reflect on payments industry shifts over their years both in and out of Glenbrook.

Join Glenbrook's Russ Jones and Ashley Lannquist for a detailed discussion on the state of stablecoins, focusing on market developments, regulatory and policy impacts, usage patterns, and competition from other improved payments systems. Learn more about the stablecoin landscape in our 2-hour, self-paced course, Stablecoin Essentials.

Trust is fundamental to payments. Gaining and maintaining trust in the payments ecosystem has always been challenging, but it becomes increasingly difficult as the industry rapidly advances and innovates. How does our trust model evolve when we move from a world where consumers are always virtually or physically present to make a purchase to a new world where robots are doing their bidding? In this episode of Payments on Fire, Chris Uriarte welcomes Jenny Hadlow, Chief Operating Officer, and Rory O'Neill, Chief Marketing Officer, from Checkout.com to discuss the findings from their recent report "Trust in the Digital Economy 2025" and explore the interesting dimensions of trust that merchants, consumers, and service providers need to be aware of in today's ever changing digital economy.

Chris, a payments regulation and fraud specialist; Russ Jones, a strategist on digital assets and stablecoins; and Drew Edmond, an expert in commerce and subscriptions. They preview 2026 trends. Topics include agentic commerce and tokenization, stablecoin momentum and regulatory headwinds, instant and cross-border payments, subscription management, card interchange and surcharging, and evolving fraud controls.

If you missed our Advanced Payments workshop in San Francisco last month, tune in to this episode to hear Yvette Bohanan and Russ Jones discuss the key topics and conversations from the session, including card network updates, stablecoins, and agentic commerce. Join us for a live, virtual Advanced Payments workshop on May 12-13 for more updates and insights into critical industry topics, or deep dive into stablecoins with our new self-paced module.

In this episode, Yvette Bohanan and Ashley Lannquist welcome Scott Southall, Head of BaaS, and Will Artingstall, Head of Digital Assets Payments and e-Commerce at Citi, to dig into what recent stablecoin regulatory changes mean for the future of banking, how U.S. institutions are mobilizing behind digital dollars, why clients are asking about new forms of money, and what's next as stablecoins potentially go mainstream in the American financial system.

In this engaging conversation, Ran Goldi, Senior VP of Payments at Fireblocks and a digital currency expert, dives into the fascinating world of stablecoins and their crucial role in the blockchain ecosystem. He discusses the lifecycle of stablecoin transactions, the transparency of blockchain, and contrasts stablecoins with tokenized deposits. Goldi shares real-world use cases and highlights the importance of strategy for businesses in adapting to this evolving landscape. His insights extend to how banks and regulations are reshaping the narrative around stablecoins.

Bryan Derman, Russ Jones, and Chris Uriarte dive into the proposed settlement of an antitrust case involving Visa and Mastercard. They break down the settlement's three-part structure, including selective card acceptance and interchange changes. Merchants' initial reactions reveal skepticism about the actual savings. The discussion touches on e-commerce challenges and how small merchants might be impacted. With potential judicial approval looming, the hosts emphasize the need for merchant education on the complex new landscape.

David Maimon, Head of Fraud Insights at SentiLink, examines the evolving landscape of fraud as 2025 approaches. He discusses the challenges in measuring identity theft due to underreporting, highlighting alarming trends with synthetic identities exploited by fraud rings. Maimon reveals dark-web pricing for stolen identities and warns about the risks of insider threats in remote hiring. They also explore the impact of agentic AI tools on fraud, advocating for stronger industry collaboration and clearer regulations to combat these growing risks.