The Card Industry: Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Report Summary
The Card Industry: Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Only when various card industry players work together will they be able to identify and address the industry’s most pressing challenges.
Boston, MA, June 10, 2009 – A new report from Aite Group, LLC examines the top issues affecting all segments of the card industry in the United States, from credit cards to debit cards, and from card issuers to merchant acquirers.
Based on April 2009 Aite Group interviews with 23 card industry executives representing a mix of card issuers, card processors, ISOs, acquirers and technology vendors, Aite Group identifies that the industry is struggling to overcome internal contradictions and is split over which concern demands the greatest attention. Among the top issues causing concern are business issues (including the recession), data security issues and regulatory pressures. While different issues affect different segments to varying degrees, actionable solutions will be developed only when the various segments work together.
"While card industry insiders agree that the industry faces difficult challenges, they don't necessarily agree on which one should be the priority for the industry as a whole," says Adil Moussa, analyst with Aite Group and author of this report. "This is rightly so, as each industry segment faces separate challenges. Card networks, for example, must fix data security issues, but they must engage all industry stakeholders - including processors and security experts currently not allowed at the PCI table - in order to formulate a technological response to the data security threat."
Card industry players mentioned in this report include the following: Alliance Data, American Express, Bank of America, Barclays, Capital One, Chase Paymentech, Citigroup, Discover, EDS, Elavon, Fidelity Information Services, Fifth Third Bank, First Data, First National Merchant Solutions, Fiserv, Global Payments, Heartland Payment Systems, HSBC, JP Morgan Chase, MasterCard, Metavante, NYCE, Pulse, RBS WorldPay, Revolution Money, Star Network, TSYS, Visa, Wells Fargo and Wright Express.
This 32-page Impact Note contains 16 figures. Clients of Aite Group's Retail Banking service can download the report.