I like to save my more dense reading to tackle on the weekend with a morning cup of coffee. Below is a collection of key payment tech pieces on my list for this weekend. My interests range from macro questions to the very specific: what are the structural changes in payments? what does the value chain look like today and where is it being disrupted? how does ApplePay actually work?

Happy reading…

1. Broad view of all payments globally

Cap Gemini World Payments Report:  Does a great job summarizing the overall payment landscape, regulatory initiatives, as well as changes in payment processing.

2. Payment Processing 101

If you need a primer on how a payment actually goes from Point A to Point B, this is a very simple guide: PayFirma

This Quora post does a nice job of explaining the economics along the payment system value chain: What is the payment system value chain?

There’s a specific example for a credit card transaction:

Nice summary of the impact of the Durbin Amendment: Economics of Durbin.

3. Opportunity for disruption

This is a well informed summary of what’s changing structurally in the US payment landscape, and is dense with ideas, themes and opinions. I’ve read it once already, but need to read it again: Structural Changes In Payments.

This is a great report on the changes specifically impacting the card processing industry: Transforming the Credit Card Processing Industry.

What does it take to be a startup providing online payment services: How to Become a Payment Processor.

4. How Apple Pay works

For the un-initiated, here is an Apple Pay primer: The Essential Apple Pay.

This post does a great job explaining tokenization, how it works and why it matters: Clovers Developers Blog.

Detail on EMV and how it works: EMV Guide.