February 14th marks a day that is symbolic of Hallmark cards, heart-shaped boxes of chocolate, teddy bears and occasionally, love. PYMNTS.com has asked the team at Market Platform Dynamics to participate in our Valentines Day series looking at the payments industry and providing a “Loves Me” or “Loves Me Not” perspective. The first stop on our romantic journey is Debit: loves me or loves me not?
Margaret Weichert: Loves Me
Valentine’s Day makes me think of all the thinks I love, and though some might be surprised to hear it, those who know me won’t be shocked that I (symbol for heart) PIN Debit! PIN Debit is one of the best payment inventions ever. It’s low cost, convenient, and provides real-time guaranteed payments to merchants. Debit is a low fraud cash replacement solution that has been gaining in popularity with consumers and merchants over the last decade because it works so well. Whether used in the US or abroad, it provides quick, easy access to Point-of-Sale payments and cash back, without any ATM fees or other charges. It also provides near real-time updates that I can use to match my purchase and spending behavior to my financial records using online banking or mobile banking services. Try doing any of that with a check! So on this Valentine’s Day, whether you are buying roses or candy or something unmentionable for your sweetheart, consider paying via PIN Debit!
Margaret Weichert is a Managing Director at Market Platform Dynamics. Margaret is an experienced payments industry executive with a proven track record of commercializing new technologies in small start-ups, and large multi-national corporations.
David Evans: Loves Me Not
The Durbin Amendment to the Dodd Frank Act — Except for larger retailers no one should love this nutty insertion into the Dodd Frank Act. Congress was supposed to be trying to prevent another financial crisis and protect consumers with this Act. Debit cards had about as much to do with the financial crisis as cheddar cheese. And only Washington could put Consumer Protection in the title of a bill that reduces the incentives for banks to issue a really consumer-friendly product and shifts billions of dollars of costs for a product that helps consumers pay merchants from merchants to consumers. Then, of course, there’s the irony of making the country’s purveyor of the doddering check the regulator of the innovative debit card.
David Evans is MPD’s Founder and an economist, business advisor and a recognized global authority on the design and implementation of complex business strategies and business models for multi-sided platform businesses.
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