Ahmed Siddiqui - The Anatomy of the Swipe: Making Money Move

What would happen if you had a real financial emergency?

A surprise expense, whether its an unexpected medical bill or an emergency house repair, can ruin anyones day. For most of us, these bills require a creative dance of moving around some money to get us through the month. But for a large population of Americans, these expenses can be disastrous. Twenty-eight percent of US adults have no emergency savings, according to Bankrates latest Financial Security Index. Even if they do have emergency savings, 57 percent of Americans dont have enough cash to cover a $500 unexpected expense.

Khaleel, a manager at a discount retailer, was part of that 28 percent of Americans. And he was in trouble.

It was six oclock in the morning and my car broke down. I had $25 to my name and about $5 in my bank account. I get paid every two weeks.

For people like Khaleel, historically his options have been scarce and often very punitive. Usually limited to predatory payday lenders or perhaps borrowing from family. Oftentimes, small bumps in our lives can cause someone to lose everythingtheir homes, their kids, and their livelihood. When more than half of Americans live on the razors edge, it can be an incredibly scary world. But technology, an ever-opening financial system, and enterprising innovators have begun to offer new approaches for people like Khaleel.

In a matter of seconds, Khaleel was able to receive $150 to his Visa debit card from Branch, a mobile technology providing earned wage access and other financial services. Moments later, he was able to make a swipe and pay the mechanic with his Visa debit card to get his car fixed. With another card purchase, he was able to get into an Uber to get himself to work.

We rely on credit and debit cards almost daily but rarely think about what needs to happen for a swipe to turn into a successful transaction. This book will take an in-depth look into how card-based payments work, from the Merchants who want to accept payments to the banks that issue millions of cards a year to consumers wanting to transact by using a piece of plastic in their wallet.

While the world primarily runs on cash, card-based payments enable the world to run faster. In 2017, 5.5 trillion dollars was transacted annually with debit and credit cards in the US alone, according to Nilsen research. In Khaleels case, if he didnt use the card-based technology offered by Branch, he would have been late to work or even fired. Cash just wasnt an option for him.

Whether you are an entrepreneur looking to impact billions of people globally or an engineer whos just plain curious about the payments space, this book aims to breakdown how payments work. This is a nonfiction book that describes very real payments situations through stories, pictures, and comics. Every major tech company at some point will need to interact with the payments ecosystem, and I hope you can use this book as your guide to understanding and implementing payments systems at your company. Well be taking a deep look at what happens in the three seconds when someone swipes their card at the card terminal of their favorite restaurant. Well also be looking at new technologies like Push-to-Card, Peer-to-Peer payment, and new ways of authorizing transactions in the cloud, based on things like geo-fences and Artificial Intelligence. Furthermore, well take a look at the revenue models for companies utilizing payments.