Payments Watch

Earlier this month, the Federal Reserve made available a summary of the 2007 Federal Reserve Payments Study. I have used these results, as well as previous payments studies to update the Payments Watch payments model. Preliminary results from this model are predicting that (for the United States) debit card use may surpass checks paid as early as this year, and that ACH and credit card use may both surpass checks paid by 2009.  Longer term, at current trends, the model is predicting that checks as we know it may cease to exist before 2020.

Read more »

Payments News reported on a piece in the Detroit Free Press regarding thoughtful use of one’s debit card. The gist is that one may over draft their account by using a debit card for purchases, resulting in one incurring overdraft fees. Here’s a thought: why can’t debit cards become credit cards when there is no more money in the account?
Read more »

According to this story, potentially thousands of shoppers at a mall in British Columbia may have had their debit card and PIN data stolen. In a way, this underlies a fundamental problem with the security of non-chip based cards. Making merchants liable may be one way to address this issue.
Read more »

In September, Interac, Mastercard and Visa Canada are planning a trial of chip cards (I understand using the EMV standard) in the Kitchener-Waterloo area just outside of Toronto according to ComputerWorld. Merchants in the region will be set up with EMV enabled POS devices that will accept chip based credit and debit cards.
Read more »

EMV is a standard for authenticating credit and debit card payments when using chip cards (”smart cards”) and chip card capable POS terminals. This standard was originally developed by Europay, Mastercard and Visa (and hence the term “EMV”). The main benefit of EMV is improved security and a reduction in fraudulent card use.
Read more »

Did you ever wonder what the search volume and news reference volume for various payment types are on the internet, how they compare to each other, and how they trend over time?
Read more »