Banking and Financial Technology Service Provider

Shout out to my newest followers! Excited to have you onboard!

Nur Islam, Saiful Islam

Merchant payments are the missing piece in many instant payment systems. At the Global SME Finance Forum, Olivier Manzi, Mojaloop Foundation Technical Projects Lead, moderates “Merchant Payments & SME Enablement through IIPS.”
📅 Mon, Sept. 15 | 🕒 3:15–4:45 p.m. | 📍 Roundtable Room 2 — First Level.

Why it matters: IIPS rails exist across Africa, yet merchant acceptance is fragmented, limiting SME inclusion while 400M people across the continent remain financially excluded. A merchant-centric approach can enable embedded finance, transaction-based credit, and B2B flows to help close the $5.2T SME financing gap. The Philippines shows the upside — 57.4% of transactions are digital in 2024, 66.4% of those are merchant payments, and QR Ph adoption rose 148.7% year over year.

Join the discussion on practical paths to turn IIPS into full merchant service platforms. Learn more about the session: https://brnw.ch/21wVsHO

Curious what it takes to build a real-time payment system for financial inclusion? The Glenbrook Cost Estimator helps policymakers and implementers explore the costs of building inclusive digital infrastructure — with or without Mojaloop. Find it here: https://brnw.ch/21wVyTS

Shout out to my newest followers! Excited to have you onboard!

Sathya Soundarrajan, Apple Mahmud, Delowar Hossin, Mahmudul Hasan, Ripon Khan Ripon Khan, Moniruzzaman Monir, Haque Shirajul, Sydul Hasan Kallol, Khwaja M. Saddam

4.9/5.0 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

ব্র্যাক ব্যাংকের নতুন ম্যানেজিং ডিরেক্টর অ্যান্ড সিইও তারেক রেফাত উল্লাহ খানকে অনেক অনেক শুভকামনা ও অভিনন্দন!

ব্র্যাক ব্যাংক পরিবার নতুন দায়িত্বে তাঁর সাফল্য কামনা করছে।

#আস্থাঅবিচল

Most people think Visa, Mastercard, and Amex do the same thing.

They don’t—because Amex isn’t just a “network.” It’s the network, the bank, and the brand—all in one. That changes everything for margins, risk, and customer experience.

Here’s the simple breakdown:

- Visa and Mastercard run “open-loop” networks: banks issue the cards, take credit risk, and manage customers; the networks process transactions at massive global scale.

- American Express runs a “closed-loop” (mostly): it issues cards, acquires merchants, and operates the network—owning the entire relationship on both sides of the transaction.

Why this matters:

- Revenue model: Amex earns from merchant discount fees (typically higher), annual fees, and interest income because it underwrites and issues—unlike Visa/Mastercard, which mainly monetize via network and assessment fees at huge volume.

- Control vs scale: Amex trades some acceptance scale for tighter control, richer data, and premium experiences; Visa/Mastercard prioritize ubiquity, low risk, and volume economics.

- Customer experience: Closed-loop data lets Amex design elite perks, tighter risk models, and personalized offers—one reason it skews toward affluent segments and premium propositions.

The result: Two winning strategies.

- Amex = fewer customers, more value per customer, deeper relationships, more control.

- Visa/Mastercard = billions of cards, near-universal acceptance, minimal credit risk, unbeatable scale.

If building a payments business today, the strategic question isn’t “Which is better?”, it’s, Do you optimize for control and margins (closed-loop traits) or for distribution and network effects (open-loop traits)?

The answer depends on segment, geography, and your risk appetite.

Which model would you bet on over the next decade — control or scale, and why?

Cross-border payments are essential to the functioning of the global economy, yet inefficiencies in speed, cost, accessibility, and regulatory complexity continue to challenge their potential. Around the world, central banks and financial institutions are working to transform this vital infrastructure — through bilateral, regional, and multilateral efforts — into something faster, more transparent, inclusive, and resilient.

Join us for a two-part roundtable that takes stock of progress to date while casting a critical eye toward what’s next.

Part A will examine the trajectory of cross-border payments — what’s been attempted, what’s worked, and where meaningful challenges remain.

Part B turns to the future. As the Nexus global hub moves into live operations, panelists will explore how collaboration between public and private sectors can open up new use cases, business models, and partnership opportunities.

Topics to be explored include:

Lessons from past approaches and reforms in cross-border payment systems.
Key opportunities and risks facing today’s innovators.
The role of Nexus and other platforms in enabling scalable, inclusive, real-time global payments.
Public-private models that support the sustainable modernization of financial infrastructure.

Financial Systems