Securities Dealer

The recent development in the payments industry, namely the rise of Fintech companies, has created an opportunity to revisit the economics of the payment system and the puzzling nature of profit in this industry. Major banks, credit card companies, and financial institutions have long controlled payments, but their dominance looks increasingly shaky.

The anxiaties about large financial corporations' debt-funded payouts—aka "stock buybacks"—is reemerging a decade after the financial crisis. Companies on the S&P 500 have poured more than $5.3 trillion into repurchasing their own shares since 2010. The root cause of most concerns is that stock buybacks do not contribute to the productive capacities of the firm.