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Article
The Future of Cryptotokens
In this chapter, Biasi and Chakravorti study how cryptotoken issuance, also referred to as initial coin offerings and security token offerings, may disrupt funding markets such as venture capital, crowdfunding, and private equity. The authors...
Article
The Future of Cryptotokens (Presentation)
Chakravorti presented his paper with Joey Biasi, titled "The Future of Cryptotokens," at the World Banking and Finance Symposium in New Delhi in December 2019.
Article
The Impact of FinTech and Big Tech Firms on the Way We Pay
In this keynote presentation, Chakravorti discusses how FinTech and big tech firms are increasing competition in the payments space. Entry into payments, often allows these non-bank providers the ability to offer loans to underserved consumers...
Article
The Role of Interchange Fees in Two-Sided Markets: An Empirical Investigation on Payment Cards
Carbó, Chakravorti, and Rodriguez study the impact of lowering interchange fees on consumer and merchant adoption and usage along with bank revenues during a ten-year period in Spain using bank-level data. Using cutting-edge econometric techniques...
Article
The Societal Benefits of Large Banks
Baumann, Chakravorti, and Shaaya identify and summarize the recent academic and industry literature on the benefits of large banks from the perspective of economies of scale and scope along with the benefits of a large...
Article
Theory of Credit Card Networks: A Survey of the Literature
Credit cards provide benefits to consumers and merchants not provided by other payment instruments as evidenced by their explosive growth in the number and value of transactions over the last 20 years. Recently, credit card...
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Training/Seminars
Chakra Advisors LLC leads workshops on key issues facing the financial services industry geared for decision makers in the public and private sectors.
Article
U.S. Payment Trends and Regulatory Developments
In his presentation, Bob Chakravorti described several new and pending payment regulations in the United States at the Cards & Payments 2010 conference held in Paris, France.
Article
Underlying Incentives in Credit Card Networks
Over the last decade, consumers have tripled their use of credit cards as more merchants have increased their acceptance of them. This increase suggests that incentives in today’s marketplace favor greater credit card use by...
Article
Universal Access, Cost Recovery, and Payment Services
Chakravorti, Gunther, and Moore suggest a subtle, yet far-reaching, tension in the objectives specified by the Monetary Control Act of 1980 (MCA) for the Federal Reserve’s role in providing retail payment services, such as check...
Article
Unlocking Capital for Climate Projects
In this blog, Chakravorti discusses voluntary carbon markets (VCMs) and their potentially important role to enable us to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. Carbon offsets allow corporates to negate their residual greenhouse gas...
Article
Visa Hires Chakra Advisors LLC
Chakra Advisors LLC hired to advise Visa on payments developments and thought leadership globally.
Article
What Is Being Disrupted by Initial Coin Offerings?
Initial coin offerings (ICOs) have the potential to dramatically change how firms raise funds enabling less costly, more transparent, more accessible, and faster access to capital. The total amount of funds raised by ICOs was...
Article
What Is the Role of Public Authorities in Retail Payment Systems?
On June 21–22, 2010, the Chicago Fed and the University of Granada co-sponsored a conference that brought together policymakers, academics, and industry practitioners to discuss evolving retail payment systems and the role of public authorities...
Article
What Problems Do CBDCs Solve?
In this blog, Chakravorti explores the role of retail central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and their impact on payments and banking, more fundamentally. CBDCs are digital representations of fiat currencies issued by central banks, but...
Article
What Problems Do Stablecoins Solve?
In this blog, Chakravorti discusses the roles for stablecoins and their ability to increase the use of cryptocurrencies for both payments and DeFi applications. He also discusses different ways to regulate stablecoins to maintain financial...
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What We Do
We bring innovative ideas to advise on the challenges facing the financial services industry based on our broad collective experience. Our thought leaders advise large and complex financial institutions, global financial networks, FinTechs, central banks...
Article
Whither Loose Change: The Diminishing Demand For Small Denomination Currency
While payment card usage has increased dramatically, the stock of outstanding currency has not declined as rapidly. Amromin and Chakravorti analyze changes in cash demand for 13 advanced economies from 1988 to 2003 by separating...
Article
Who Pays for Credit Cards?
Chakravorti and Emmons model side payments in a competitive credit‐card market. If competitive retailers absorb the cost of accepting credit cards by charging a higher goods price to everyone, then someone must subsidize convenience users...
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Who We Are
We are an innovative and creative economic strategy consulting firm that uses data-driven analysis to advise industry participants and policymakers on the evolving financial market services industry. Our experts advise public and private sector decision...
Article
Why Do Banks Reward Their Customers To Use Their Credit Cards?
Using a unique administrative level dataset from a large and diverse U.S. financial institution, Agarwal, Chakravorti, and Lunn test the impact of rewards on credit card spending and debt. Specifically, we study the impact of...
Article
Why Do We Still Write So Many Checks?
In this article, Chakravorti and McHugh address why consumers, merchants, and financial institutions are reluctant to embrace electronic payments even though electronic payment networks, such as the credit card and automated clearinghouse (ACH) networks, have...
Article
Why Has Stored Value Not Caught On?
In this article, Chakravorti asks why have general-purpose stored-value cards been unsuccessful in penetrating the U.S. market? Three necessary conditions for a payment instrument to be successful are discussed: consumers and merchants need to be...
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Why Invest in Payment Innovations?
Chakravorti and Kobor provide a framework to study the creation and adoption of innovations by payment providers and processors. The authors identify several motivating factors for banks and nonbanks to invest in payment innovations. In...