Payments Consultant

I just received a new Diners Club card when my last one expired, and this is my first EMV “smart card.”  There are several interesting things about this little package that just arrived, and it leads me to more questions than answers. Many issuers are distributing these EMV cards to their international travelers to relieve [...]

Today the Fed has issued their proposed interchange regulations.  They boil down to three key proposals: 1.  The Fed gutted interchange by setting prices at least 80% lower than today.  They proposed two choices for interchange prices, which amount to a giant win for retailers and a commensurate loss for issuers:  Either a flat $0.12 cap, or [...]

Amidst all the hype, politics and lobbying in the Durbin Amendment interchange fees debate, is a little-noticed component that could have a big impact on the state of payment technology in the US.  I believe the changes offered by the House and accepted by Durbin and the Senate could lead to regulations that force the US [...]

Today, the House of Representatives passed the Data Accountability and Trust Act, which sets national standards for the protection of consumer’s personal information like payment card numbers. More government regulation a good thing? Actually in this case it is.

The U.S. market is clearly in the early stages of a massive growth trend in mobile payments. I see three main areas of mobile payments/commerce activities in varying states: remote mobile payments, mobile point of sale (POS) and contactless/NFC mobile payments. Remote mobile payments are actually quite far along in the lifecycle. Today, digital content [...]