The Catalyst Code

Card rewards are going to disappear and fees are going to return according to a recent research report Disruption in the Payments World. That’s a distinct possibility. Between the interchange fee lawsuits and Congressional pressure for the card associations to get rid of interchange fees it is possible that the US could go the way […]

Visa, a bank card association that was formed in 1970, and which endured numerous attacks from class action lawyers, rivals, and government prosecutors, passed away on Wednesday, March 19, 2008, after a long illness. Her death was announced by her investment banker, Goldman Sachs. Survivors include its thousands of issuers, and millions of cardholders. […]

A few readers responded to my post on the European Commission’s efforts to regulate interchange fees in Europe. One commentator pointed out the lack of evidence in Australia that merchants passed on lower interchange fees to consumers in the form of lower prices. Another one responded that the amount of money was so small that […]

The wagons continue to circle around the payment card systems over interchange fees. The European Commission has found MasterCard’s fees for cross-country transactions unlawful and Visa is next on their radar screen. Meanwhile merchants seem to be hedging their bets with their mega antitrust case in the United States with MasterCard and Visa by getting […]

As expected the European Commission found that MasterCard’s interchange fees violated the EU’s competition laws yesterday. Neelie Kroes, the czarina of competition policy in the EC, says this is a Christmas present for European consumers who will see lower prices at the stores. That statement is just about the best proof one could ask […]

“We take privacy concerns seriously. All these images are taken on public streets. It’s exactly what you could see walking down the street.” –Stephen Chau, product manager for Google Maps, on Google Street View
Yesterday, Google launched its Street View feature for Google Maps which allows users to view photos of city streets. The […]

The blogosphere is becoming the wild west with ambushes and shoot-outs and not a sherriff in site. Now, Web 2.0 gurus like Tim O’Reilly are talking about a code of ethics for this new frontier.
I agree that if the Internet is to reach its promise we will need law and order. The blogosphere is […]