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Closed-Loop Payments
Is Starbucks really selling coffee, or building an ecosystem? Prepaid balances, a loyalty program and customer data turn a coffee chain's payments into a closed-loop economy, a very different model from Istanbulkart.
Closed-Loop Payments
In the final post of the closed-loop payments series, the common question behind cards, QR payments, and prepaid balances comes into focus: who manages the customer relationship, and whose ecosystem does the customer stay in?
FAST
The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) has implemented a significant limit increase in the FAST system. Under the regulation effective August 26, 2026, the FAST money transfer limit was raised from TRY 100,000 to TRY 300,000. The same increase also applies to Request to Pay...
Closed-Loop Payments
Is Alipay a payment system, or a digital economy? In the previous post we discussed how Starbucks shows that payment systems can evolve into a different structure. At first the goal was to make payment easier for the customer. As the system grew, loyalty programs...
Closed-Loop Payments
Why does a coffee chain build its own loyalty program, and why does a payment app keep adding services? This post looks at how loyalty, data, and new services drive the growth of closed-loop payment systems, and at the financial layers behind that growth.
Merchant & POS
In the first post I explained what closed-loop payment systems are and how they differ from open-loop ones. Many of the replies I received boiled down to one question: how do these systems actually work behind the scenes once a QR code is scanned?
Payment Systems
After switching to response code 70 for contactless limit-exceeded cases, we found that some overseas POS devices and acquirers did not handle it as expected. This post covers why the problem lies in the ecosystem and how to address it.
Open Banking
Embedded Finance means integrating financial products and services into non-financial platforms, experiences or business processes. In other words, services offered by financial institutions become part of the product or service flows of non-financial organizations.
Agentic Commerce
The next customer on the internet may not be human. If AI agents become part of purchasing decisions, the rules of e-commerce, marketing, and payment systems could change.
Payment Systems
When Does a Transit Card Become a Payment System? Millions of people in Istanbul use Istanbulkart every day. Passing through metro turnstiles, rushing to a bus or boarding a ferry at the last moment, our hand reaches almost by reflex for our card or our phone...
Payment Systems
In payment systems, an “appeal” is the process of objecting to the outcome of a transaction dispute. It is usually discussed alongside chargebacks, but it plays a critical role in interbank dispute resolution, when a party asks the card scheme to re-evaluate a concluded decision.
Payment Systems
How do banks fund so many points, bonuses, and discounts? This post explains the credit card profitability model: merchant commissions, interchange, interest income, installments, and why campaigns are an investment in transaction volume rather than a cost.