A glance backward in time revealed industry stalwart Visa Inc. embroiled in a lawsuit to protect its brand, automated clearing house (ACH) payment volume surging and, much like today, debate over smart card deployment stirring a diversity of opinions.
In April 2002, Visa filed suit in the U.S. District Court for Northern California against First Data Corp. to stop development of a transaction processing system that would have bypassed Visa's own VisaNet system. Visa alleged First Data's Intra-FDC processing and settlement service threatened to dilute both the Visa brand and integrity of the credit card industry.
NACHA - The Electronic Payments Association reported ACH payments surpassed 1 billion for the first time in 2001, up 16.2 percent from 2000, for a total of 7.99 billion payments valued at $22.2 trillion. NACHA projected ACH payment volume would double by 2006.
The Smart Card Forum issued a white paper, What's So SMART about Smart Cards? It estimated the U.S. market accounted for fewer than 2 percent of the more than 2 billion smart cards in global circulation. One reason cited: corporate strategists' fears that competitors could find ways "to bundle a multiprocessing application that eliminates the need for their card."
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