The Broken Link - Digital Transactions

D I G I T A L T R A N S A C T I O N S . N E T
CONTENTS
February 2008 ■ Volume 5, Number 2
The development of decoupled
debit and its ripple effects could
represent a sea change in the
card landscape. The situation
has similarities with that of the
1980s when a few big banks
first began marketing plastic to
consumers who had no deposit
accounts with them. page 24
24 Debit’s Decisive
Moment
Many observers hail so-called
decoupled debit cards as the
latest innovation in payments.
While that’s hardly reassuring to
banks, all industry participants
are quickly trying to size up the
unknown risks and possibly rich
rewards.
6 The Gimlet Eye
How the Merchants’
Courthouse Capers
Have Paid off
8 Trends & Tactics
Will the U.S. Meddle in
Interchange? A Higher
Profile for Image Sharing;
Mocapay: Mobile
Payments for Everyone
Plus, Security Notes argues that
shame could be a useful tool
to fight hackers, and the Web
Transaction Performance Indexes
spotlight winners and losers
among the leading credit card
and online-banking sites.
14 Acquiring
The ACH Comes to the
Cash Register
It’s taken some time, but retailers
of all sizes increasingly are
embracing electronic check
alternatives. The reasons: new
technology and a push from
processors.
19 Components
ATMs: Not Dead, Not Done
More versatility can mean
extended life for the ATM, says
an executive with a firm that
enables ATMs for prepaid card
dispensing and sees potential
for distributing a wide range of
other media.
32 E-Commerce
The Big Risk in Instant
Account Verification
Non-account-holding banks
are starting to ask consumers
for their passwords and other
log-on credentials to make sure
they own the accounts they’re
using to make payments. At a
time of massive data breaches,
this is a dangerous practice that
should stop now.
35 Security
Why Issuers Hesitate To
Enlist Cardholders in the
War on Fraud
With data breaches exposing
more and more card accounts,
credit and debit card issuers
should be doing much more
to involve cardholders in fraud
detection, some experts say. But
would the fraud cardholders
spot justify the cost of the tools
issuers gave them?
39 Endpoint
Behind the
Experimentation in
Gift Card Pricing
Single-purpose gift cards are
now central to merchant
acquirers’ offerings to small
merchants, but acquirers vary
widely in their gift card pricing
strategies, say Marc Abbey and
Paul Grill.
Cover illustration:
Silense/istockphoto.com
Digital Transactions (USPS 024-247) is published monthly by Boland Hill Media LLC, 3 Golf Center, Suite 314,
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