The Merchant Payments Coalition is an Association composed of Trade Associations and Merchants. Their purpose is to attempt to Lobby Congress to change the Interchange rate structure or abolish the existing system. The Issues on their website at www.unfaircreditcardfees.com articulates the issues impacting US Merchants. Despite advances in Fraud detection, Risk analysis and Predictive Risk Scoring technologies. Card Association fees continue to take an increasing percentage of the revenues generated by Merchants.
I highly recommend reading their site to understand the issues facing Merchants. The National Association of Convenience Stores is a part of this group. In 2007 I recognized as others that the current Free Market mechanisms are in fact not operating. This is due to the fact that Visa and MasterCard control 80% of the US Payments market. Their success has allowed them to set the prices to what the Market will bear.
Competition is needed. ACH offers an alternative to their services. Risk Management, Loyalty incentives, Predictive Risk scoring offers a truly viable alternative. Shell Oil USA with their Shell Saver Card, has rolled out a service in January of 2009. Blackhawk Networks a subsidiary of Safeway Corporation has a SCheck product, First Data Corporation has Connect pay a Loyalty product with ACH, Tempo Payments offers a Decoupled product, as does National Paymentcard Association. The Software and Hardware company offering Loyal Debit is in the Decoupled Debit space.
Merchants should evaluate the opportunity and take a chance on changing the paradigm in their favor. This blog is about the emerging Decoupled Debit product. And how Merchants see their part in the payments Industry. I welcome your comments.
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