The American Consumer Institute is concerned to learn that a letter has been sent by a few U.S. legislators, led by Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, to Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. regarding reports of pending increases in interchange fees on merchants. The letter expresses misplaced fears that such plans would lead merchants to pass […]
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The Hill: Cutting Interchange Fees is a Recipe for Disaster
Every so often, Congress introduces a piece of legislation advocating for some new form of price control claiming it is needed to protect the rights of consumers. Yet, time and time again these price controls fail to live up to their expectation, usually to the detriment of the very consumers they were designed to protect. This op-ed was published […]
Real Clear Policy: For the Sake of Consumers, Kill the Durbin Amendment
Despite trying to cut costs for consumers and businesses, research has consistently shown the Durbin amendment denied consumers access to no-fee and low-fee financial services. Moreover, this denial disproportionately harmed minority and low-income communities, preventing them from accessing formal lines of credit. The proposal to lower and cap interchange fees for credit card transactions would exacerbate […]
Capping Interchange Fees Won’t Enhance Consumer Welfare
Each year, financial merchants such as Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and banks process 39.6 billion card transactions in the United States, amounting to 108.6 million transactions each day. To ensure these transactions are processed quickly and securely, financial merchants and banks impose interchange fees on transactions, more commonly known as swipe fees. Last year, merchants businesses paid financial […]
The Evolving Security of Credit Cards
Another breach of consumer credit card information was reported by Hudson’s Bay, the owner of Lord and Taylor and Saks stores. Hudson’s Bay said “it was the victim of a security breach that compromised data from payment cards that had been used at some stores in North America, and that it had “taken steps to […]
Time and Security at the Checkout Line
For retail payments there are six protocols in common use – cash, check, credit card swipe and sign, debit card swipe and pin entry, EMV chip and sometimes sign, and mobile payments (using near field communications) with a second form of authentication. Cash and check are less commonly used. Cash payments challenge some of the […]
Forbes: Consumers, Businesses Hindered by Shoddy New Credit Cards
The poorly planned, poorly executed transition to chip-enabled credit cards claims another victim. This time, it’s not just the everyday American consumers stuck with lackluster security measures and it’s not just the nation’s retailers who have endured costly equipment upgrades while taking on more financial liability. This time, it’s VeriFone – a $2 billion company […]
FORBES: Why the Walmart Lawsuit Against VISA Could Be Good For Consumers
This FORBES piece discusses the need for better credit card security and the reason why Walmart is suing VISA. It can be read online at FORBES.
Forbes: Chip and PIN Still Not Here
This piece published in Forbes sets the record straight about Chip and PIN credit cards.
ACI in Forbes: “Chip and PIN” Is Ready Now
The ongoing discord between retailers and the banking industry highlights the disagreement regarding payment cards and where the technology is headed. While the financial industry often deflects calls for improving credit card security by conjuring up the prospect of a mobile and biometric payment world, those days are too far from now for us to […]