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July 24, 2023 • Issue 23:07:02

Payments, a retrospective
Payments, a retrospectiv
e

The changing point of sale

four or five categories of interchange," Musante said.
"Now we have hundreds" that vary based on type of card,
authorization method and merchant category.
"Electronic terminals, and the sophisticated networks they
connect to, came about in response to widespread fraud,
which really took off in the early 1980s," explained retired
industry consultant Paul Martaus. Since then, the devices
have evolved from being incredibly rudimentary machines
to ultra sophisticated devices that track things like sales,
inventory and employee scheduling.

Card and card data security have also taken on added
importance throughout the years. The card brands took the
first step by adding holograms to cards. They also devised
the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI
By Patti Murphy DSS) to ensure merchants were taking necessary steps to
protect consumer card data.
oint of sale technology has a rich history that
dates back generations. Its modern history More recently EMV chips and chip-reading devices were
reflects a steady progression from manual card introduced to protect against in-store card fraud. Many
P imprinters to electronic devices capable of han- processors also employ end-to-end encryption to protect
dling various payment form factors, including wearables. sensitive cardholder data as it is transmitted between
the merchant's terminal and the processing network.
But it was the advent of electronic terminals that gave way
to independent sales organizations (ISOs) and their sales
reps. Prior to this, banks dominated the market, accepting
paper charge slips from merchants, treating them as Contributed articles inside by:
deposits that cleared like checks.

"The banks and their partners built a solid, very sturdy Allen Kopelman ....................................................................................18
and reliable system of getting payments authorized and
settled," said Mark Dunn, founder of the consultancy Field Nick Cuuci................................................................................................28
Guide Enterprises. But along the way, "the pricing for the Dr. Jack T. Baldwin ................................................................................30
transaction became complex and somewhat expensive,
from the merchant's point of view." Andrew Gillen ........................................................................................32
Mat Hobbis .............................................................................................34
Ken Musante, president of Napa Payments and Consulting,
agreed. Musante got into the business in 1983, the same
year the The Green Sheet launched. "Back then, there were

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