Disruption and Innovation at the Point of Sale

Surprising disruptions and unanticipated consequences abound in payments. Sometimes, it’s just a rule change that makes all the difference. In 2001, the NACHA rule enabling ad hoc web debits was put in place, primarily at the behest of banks who wanted to make it...

Hostility in Payments

The recent entry of Amazon.com into the small merchant mobile POS card acceptance market may signal the last phase of increasing hostility in the US merchant acquiring segment of the card payments business. Prior to the launch of Square in 2010, the merchant acquiring...

Field Report from 2010 ETA

Another year has flown by and here I am at the 2010 ETA Annual Meeting. I love to walk through the exhibit hall and see “what’s hot,” what’s changed, and what never changes at this ISO conference.  So here goes… Before I arrived I tried to predict what the hot areas...