Debit Card Conference

T he February 28 and 29 Faulkner & Gray Debit Card Conference in Orlando, Florida was very interesting this year. This was F&G’s eighth year in presenting the conference, which had just over 300 registrants, including more than 80 speakers and booth personnel. A number of people (20%) were absent from sessions, perhaps given the great weather and Disney World location, but nonetheless some wonderful speakers made the conference a real success.

From Debra Janssen, eFunds CEO, to Business Dynamics’ Partner John Bennett, the conference had top-notch people providing “real” data and an honest perspective. Ms. Janssen described the new direction for eFunds. The company plans to bridge the gap between processing companies and information companies, using the new account information that they have from 85,000 banks and the check data they have from 80,000 merchants (SCAN), coupled with the information from their check printing business (Deluxe) to form a data warehouse that can be the engine for a DebitBureau (new eFunds service mark) to help their customers. For more information see the article on page 18.

Just in case any of us were not clear on the concept that check conversion, check truncation, host-based stored value, online debit (ATMs), and off-line debit (Visa or MasterCard branded bankcards) are all seeking the same space, i.e. to replace the paper check, Mark Sievewright, President of PSI Global opened his speech with the following statement: “The debit card is fast becoming the ‘face’ of the checking account—and competition has never been more fierce for ownership of the customer’s checking business . . . ”

While this was a debit card conference, the meeting offered smart card, stored-value card, and check conversion sessions as well as a superior speech of branding. Small Value Payments Company (SVPco) used the conference to announce the rollout of its new Internet Debit system, which uses a PC’s CD drive to house an electronic card which provides secure PIN data, with account information entered in the open. (Watch for a story on this product, because SVPco, part of the NYCE network, is interested in the ISO sales channel.)

I have attended this conference every other year, because new developments were not moving fast enough to have fresh material each year. Given current product planning and development, including Visa’s announcement at the conference of their plans to permit private BINs and non-branded card programs to come into their debit network with host-based loyalty, and stored-value programs, we should all be attending this conference regularly in the future.

For more information on other Faulkner & Gray conferences or next year’s Debit Card Forum go to http://www.faulknergray.com.

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