Bankloch

Every business has to deal with   refund requests . As there is (at first sight) no business added value in processing these requests (to the contrary they only cost money), very few companies   invest in a fluent and efficient process   for dealing with them. This in contrast to the   standard check-out process , in which significant investments are done to make this process as efficient and frictionless as possible. PSPs like Stripe, Adyen, Mollie…​ have become multi-billion-dollar companies in optimizing those flows. The   so-called exception case   of a "Refund Request" might however not be such an exception, especially in the online world, where supplies are not always guaranteed, shippings are not always that reliable and users have the right to return (in case the consumer is not satisfied of the product, has simply changed his mind or the product is broken within the period of guarantee). For example Zalando is known for its easy return policy and a...

  With the Covid crisis (nearly) behind us, there has been a strong focus by governments worldwide on   stimulating consumption   in order to revive the economy as quickly as possible. This is needed in order to reduce public debts, which have exploded during the pandemic. This revival has however been so intensive, that it has led now to historically high inflation rates, showing an overheating of the economy. Nonetheless governments are still looking to stimulate the economy, i.e. with consumer’s buying power under pressure (especially due to the high inflation rates), no government dares to increase taxes and every government is looking to help those most severely impacted by the expanding inflation and the post-ripple effects of the pandemic. An instrument which is often brought to the table by politicians and economists is so-called " helicopter money ". This is a term which is used today quite broadly for any monetary stimulus where cash is directly distributed to t...

There is a clear trend with the   young generation to be averse of credit cards . They have seen from their parents what a too high usage of credit cards can lead to and at the same time feel that credit cards are complex and lack transparency. The   rise of BNPL   (= Buy Now Pay Later - see my blog " Buy Now Pay Later - A credit in disguise?   -   https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2021/07/buy-now-pay-later-credit-in-disguise.html" ), is a clear consequence of that, i.e. these companies provide a different means to the same end (buying a good on credit), but with a better user experience and more transparency (or at least the feeling of more transparency). As a result of this shift, a potential   gap   is rising on all   loyalty and reward programs offered by most (credit) card schemes . These advantages are a huge market, although these rewards are often more the perception of getting value than receiving actual value (as very few people actually con...