NACHA, the ACH rule-making body that has often seemed like a rabbit among the lions, has stepped out aggressively with a request for comment on a proposed “Same Day ACH” service. As a long time admirer of the U.K.’s “Faster Payment” system (roughly analogous), I am...
Former Sen. Chris Dodd, ex-Chair of Senate Banking Committee, probably needs no introduction to anyone in payments. In his keynote address to the annual meeting of the ETA this morning, he commented on the Durbin Amendment: Excluded interchange from original bill...
Got back this morning after a whirlwind two days in Austin for NACHA Payments 2011. I was in briefings or meetings nearly the whole time, so I barely attended break outs and skipped all of the general sessions, but here are my reflections based on my observations,...
After months of speculation and hand-wringing, last Friday we finally got a relatively complete reading on how the Federal Reserve will likely implement the prescribed regulation of debit interchange and debit network competition. My partner, Carol Benson, has also...
At Glenbrook, we think (and teach!) about the payments industry by domains (the purpose of the payment) and players (users and providers). Our quick take on the impact of yesterday’s proposed rules on each is below. One general assumption I’ve made here is that the...
Last June, in an article titled "The End of Interchange", I wrote about the then yet to be passed Durbin amendment - and how it might affect debit interchange fees. Earlier today, we got the first glimpse. The point of my earlier article was focused on the...
This week I've been in Amsterdam for Sibos - the annual international banking conference sponsored by SWIFT. (For those of you who aren't familiar with SWIFT it is a consortium of worldwide banks that runs a global secure network connecting banks in over 200...
I'm just back from a fascinating ten day visit to India - and, frankly, I'm still in a bit of a daze from that amazing experience. More to come about my visit there. Tonight, as I'm catching up on the happenings while I was gone, I came across a press release...
There, did I get your attention? ... Tonight's headlines say it even more clearly - see this Wall St. Journal story titled "Merchants Win Debit-Card Fee Battle". Or, see this post on PaymentsNews.com about the Durbin compromise announced earlier today. Seriously,...
I’ve been amazed by what I’ve been reading of late from the “analyst” firms commenting on the Durbin Amendment. A lot of what I’ve seen makes me wonder whether these folks should turn in their analyst licenses and simply register as paid lobbyists for their big...
