Industry Compliance:
The Engine that Drives Change in Card Payments
Dove Announces New Payments Compliance Practice
Introducing the Payments Compliance Team
Upcoming Conferences
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Issue #19
It’s nearly time for the first BIG CRUNCH of 2007—the implementation of the Spring Association Release. After hundreds or perhaps even thousands of hours have been expended, project managers, QA and IT staffs throughout the payments industry, are in the final throes of preparing to ‘go live’.
In most cases they will have done an excellent job and it will go well. Also, in most cases it will have been a lost opportunity. The infrastructure will not be better as a result of all the hard work; products will not be updated; ongoing costs will not be reduced. It will be a technical success and a business failure.
In this issue of On Payments, we discuss the importance of effective Release management and how industry participants can leverage the association Releases to their competitive advantage.
To sign up for an online subscription to On Payments, please click here.
Industry Compliance:
The Engine that Drives Change
in Card Payments
If the terms ‘Global Technology Symposium,’ ‘Business Enhancements Workshop,’ ‘GCMS Technical Specifications,’ or ‘Business Enhancements Release Documentation’ have meaning for you, then you are most likely directly involved in industry compliance-related activities. These are but a few of the many names given by MasterCard and Visa to elements of their respective processes for rolling out and facilitating the implementation of their semi-annual changes, the Spring and Fall Releases as they are commonly referred to. For all involved—and that is every organization in the payments system: merchants, merchant banks, ISOs, processors, issuers and, of course, MasterCard and Visa themselves—the Releases are a very large and critical undertaking. It is through these Releases that the branded card products are continually improved and through which the payments system adds value to the payment transaction chain and implements risk and security features.
There is another acronym that has taken center stage in the payments lexicon, at least as the public and the lawmakers see it. That is PCI DSS. On September 7, 2006 American Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB, MasterCard Worldwide, and Visa jointly announced the establishment of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) Council. This council will establish global standards and common procedures for all payment products for the security and treatment of card information. The council will identify important changes and required processes that will have to be implemented across the payments system. These PCI changes may be introduced in future Spring and Fall Releases, or they may be announced and rolled out separately, as some have been in the past. In any case, implementation of these changes will look and feel much like a Release in terms of process, if not in scope.
It is not uncommon for the various payments system participant groups to be in disagreement regarding areas of focus, priorities, methods for implementation, and timeframes, since each represents very different interests. But there are three things that everyone would agree on: these changes, whether they emanate from a Release or PCI, are (1) essential, (2) difficult, and (3) very expensive.
To learn more about managing the Release process effectively, click here to read the full article.
Dove Announces New Payments Compliance Practice
On March 1, we officially launched a new Payments Compliance practice.
The Payments Compliance practice, led by Paul Turgeon, will focus on providing consultative services designed to meet the compliance needs of a payments industry in transition. The new practice, which consists of several very experienced colleagues with deep expertise in compliance and back office processes and systems, will help industry participants assimilate the myriad association Release changes and use the semi-annual compliance process to optimize their products, systems and operating infrastructure.
To read the press release, please click here.
To learn more about our new Payments Compliance solutions, please click here.
Introducing the Payments Compliance Team
We are pleased to announce the addition of four new members to the Dove team:
Paul Turgeon joins us as a Vice President and head of the Payments Compliance practice. Paul has more than 30 years experience and has held several senior roles in the payments industry, most recently Sr. Vice President and head of the Transaction Processing Systems Group at First Data Corp. Prior to that, Paul held executive positions with NYCE (head of Advanced Product Development), Schema Corp. and Technology Management Associates, both payments consulting firms which he helped to found. He can be reached at 720-258-0350 or pturgeon@doveconsulting.com.
David Grace joins us as a Senior Manager and member of the Payments Compliance practice. David has more than 10 years experience in the payments industry, most recently as Vice President, Product Management for FDC. Prior to that, David was the Director of Debit Business and Advanced Product Development at NYCE Corp. He can be reached at 720-258-0351 or dgrace@doveconsulting.com.
Sue Hadnot joins us as a Manager and member of the Payments Compliance practice. Sue has more than 25 years experience in the payments industry, most recently as the Senior Director of Strategy and Communications for Association Compliance at FDR. Prior to that, she held several compliance and back office positions with FDR, including experience in areas like chargebacks. She can be reached at shadnot@doveconsulting.com.
Becky McCartney joins us as a Manager and member of the Payments Compliance practice. Becky also has more than 10 years experience in the payments industry, all focused on compliance issues and all with First Data Corp. Most recently, Becky was the Director of Project Management, including the PMO team and the Compliance project team at FDR. Prior to that, she was a Project Director for Industry Compliance. She can be reached at bmccartney@doveconsulting.com.
Upcoming Conferences
ETA's 2007 Annual Meeting & Expo will be on April 17-19 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas. One of the largest gatherings of electronic payments professionals, the ETA Annual Meeting and Expo provides opportunities for ISOs, financial institutions, payment processors, vendors and third party service providers to build new relationships and connect with industry experts. Paul Turgeon, David Grace and Fred Gore will be attending the conference and would welcome the chance to meet.
Join us for SourceMedia’s 19th Annual Card Forum & Expo, April 22-24 at the Boca Raton Resort & Club in Boca Raton, Florida. Focused on trends in debit, prepaid, and credit cards, this year’s conference includes sessions on contactless payments, debit rewards, targeted marketing, interchange, and the international card landscape.
On April 23, Tony Hayes will moderate a panel entitled ‘Will the Debit Card Phenomenon Continue?’ featuring panelists Susan Coward, TD Banknorth; Catherine Kauffman, BB&T; and Dan Tuccillo, PNC. The session will focus on how issuers plan to grow their debit card portfolios, including the effective use of debit rewards programs, cardholder segmentation and targeted promotions, contactless cards and other new technologies, and new payment venues.
On April 24, David Dove will moderate a panel discussion on the Interchange Debate, where experts—including Tom Brown, Partner in the Antitrust/Competition Practice at O’Melveny & Myers, LLP; Robert Vizas, Counsel at Arnold & Porter, LLP; and K. Craig Wildfang, Partner at Robins, Kaplan Miller & Ciresi, LLP—will duke it out in a traditional debate style on the topic of card interchange. Audience participation is a must, so come prepared to get involved!
PULSE EFT Association is hosting its 2007 conference Winning with Debit April 30 - May 2 at the Wynn Las Vegas. On April 30, Tony Hayes will lead a workshop on managing and mitigating debit card fraud. On May 1, Tony Hayes and Melissa Fox will be presenting ‘Redefining the Profitability of Your ATM Portfolio’ that highlights findings from the recently released 2006 ATM Deployer Study.