Impact Of Wal-Mart Case 'Is In Hands Of Players'. Pago Electrónico :: e-Payment

Impact Of Wal-Mart Case 'Is In Hands Of Players'


Fecha Lunes, agosto 18 @ 12:51:55
Tema Pago Electrónico :: e-Payment


After the Wal-Mart case, elimination of the “honor-all-cards” rule, which required retailers to take the card schemes’ offline debit cards in addition to credit cards, will level the playing field. Without the HACRs “competition at network level will become more open and vibrant”, Card Forum notes, as the schemes no longer have an “incumbency advantage over their network rivals”, so “product innovations likely will increase”. First Data’s impending acquisition of the Star network, may however deter the innovation of rival networks by creating a dominant (online) PIN-debit network.
Once the HACRs are eliminated, some observers predict that “offline debit cards will become an antiquated artifact like the hand-dial telephone”, CardForum states. However, with just 25 per cent of merchants accepting online debit cards, the settlements are likely to trigger a short-term upsurge in debit, with this continuation depending on competition among regional EFT networks. Anti-trust cases like this may “offer a chance to restructure an industry”, according to CardForum, and “the Wal-Mart settlements offer the promise of many of these benefits”.

“Whether those objectives will be achieved”, however, CardForum concludes, “will depend a great deal on whether firms respond to these new challenges by focusing on consumers, innovating and competing aggressively rather than by trying to build new barriers to competition”. Either way, more competition from EFT networks such as Star, Pulse and NYCE, or new payment systems, is to be expected, even if “the litigation opened a Pandora’s Box that may result in future high-stakes antitrust disputes”.

CardForum
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