The Gimlet Eye Many of our readers have doubtless heard dire forecasts for the debit card business. The dreaded Durbin Amendment’s interchange caps and routing restrictions, the thinking goes, will stunt the business by forcing issuers to trim back rewards, charge new fees, and divert resources to credit cards, which …

Trends & Tactics   No Apocalypse Now—Or Later—for Debit As Digital Transactions went to press this month, the ultimate extent and timing of the debit restrictions contained in the Durbin Amendment remained unclear. Final rules had not yet issued from the Federal Reserve, and in mid-March a bill appeared in …

Security Notes Gideon Samid – Gideon@AGSgo.com I bet that right now you are behind on downloading the latest security patches from Microsoft. Don’t you wonder about this now-familiar routine? Patches and other security tactics are alive and well. My graduate students at the University of Maryland get lucrative job offers …

Security Linda Punch Knowledge about the risk of a data breach is woeful among small merchants, as is understanding of PCI. ISOs could be doing more to help, and now there are signs that, finally, they are. For most small merchants, the independent sales organization is their first, and usually …

Cover Story Transaction volumes are rising as NACHA executes on an ambitious agenda of new payments initiatives. Can everything  the ACH network’s governing body  wants come to pass? By Jim Daly Think you’re busy? Of course you are, but the folks at NACHA, governing body of the automated clearing house …

E-Commerce Peter Lucas Gateways have always had to reinvent themselves. Now, with e-commerce returning to double-digit growth and mobile payments poised for takeoff, they have to do it again—and this time with more competition than ever. Since their inception about a decade ago, gateways have marketed value-added services, such as …

Opinion & Analysis Steve Mott Banks and card networks argue Durbin and other recent regulation will hurt small banks and consumers. But take heart, the sky will remain firmly in place. The cries of anguish from the banking industry and from the payments players that live off banking’s traditional revenue …

Endpoint What gives? The global payment card networks are attempting to gain closed-model benefits while remaining open. Vertical integration and emerging players are redrawing the traditional boundaries between networks and other payments players. It can be confusing, but it will ultimately add value to the business, says Eric Grover. Eric …

Mobile payments may be a nascent business fraught with uncertainty, but Starbucks Coffee Co. seems to have found a key to success. Last week, the company revealed that more than 3 million transactions have taken place on its smart-phone-based prepaid payments system, which became available in all U.S. company-owned stores …

Overwhelmed by the volume of comments it received, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben S. Bernanke on Tuesday said in letters to Congress the Fed would miss Congress’s April 21 deadline to have issued final debit card interchange and network regulations. Bernanke, however, said the Fed still plans to meet the …