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Regulating Retail Payment Systems: The Case of Payment Cards
Bolt and Chakravorti discuss different types of market interventions by public authorities in retail payment markets. They concentrate on three types of market interventions. First, they analyze the impact of removing pricing restrictions placed on...
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Research
Our innovative research uses cutting-edge empirical tools that informs strategic business decisions, shapes sound public policy, and enables greater financial inclusion. Our team's research has appeared in well-known industry, central bank, academic outlets, and cited...
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Retail Payment Economics: Theory and Practice
In his presentation to Bank of Mexico economists and payment experts, Chakravorti presented an update of economic models that consider various forms of regulation.
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Santiago Carbo Valverde, PhD
Santiago Carbo Valverde is a Professor of Economics at the University of Granada (Spain).
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Short Topic Briefs
Chakra Advisors LLC provides topical analysis on issues facing financial markets. Target audiences include industry leaders, central banks, academics, and policymakers.
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Small Business in the Digital Age: Recommendations for Recovery and Resilience
Greater digitization of commerce has brought enormous benefits to businesses and consumers. By using digital payment capabilities and online marketplaces, many micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are more able to compete with larger firms...
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Surcharging and Honor-All-Cards Rules
Bob Chakravorti discusses surcharging and honor-all-cards rules for payment cards. Generally, merchants charge the same price regardless of the type of payment instrument used to make purchases. In many jurisdictions, merchants are not allowed to...
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The Economics of Retail Payments: Theory and Practice
In his lecture as part of a broader course on Effective Oversight of Payment and Settlement Systems: Maintaining Financial Plumbing edited by Charles Kahn, Chakravorti describes the underlying economics of retail payments including substitution of...
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The Evolving Payments Landscape And Its Implications For Monetary Policy
The key questions that Chakravorti asks in this book chapter are: (1) How is the payment system evolving? (2) What are the economic forces driving the adoption of new payment instruments? (3) Would recent developments...
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The Future of Cryptotokens
In this chapter, the authors 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 discuss...
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The Future of Cryptotokens (Presentation)
Sujit Chakravorti presented his joint paper with Joey Biasi, titled "The Future of Cryptotokens," at the World Banking and Finance Symposium in New Delhi in December 2019.
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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...
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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...
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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.
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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.
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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...
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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...
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Visa Hires Chakra Advisors LLC
Chakra Advisors LLC hired to advise Visa on payments developments and thought leadership globally.
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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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