As you know, on Friday, July 13th, 2012 it was announced that Visa, MasterCard, and a number of large credit card issuers had reached an out of court Settlement with US Merchants regarding a Class Action Lawsuit on Interchange and card rules. The Settlement is complex and impacts ALL Merchants and acceptors of credit cards, not just those involved in the Class Action suit.

Unfortunately, the media has not gotten everything quite right and has omitted several important considerations and after speaking to some Merchants at a recent conference, it seems that there is a need for more information and clarification of the issues. I have created an Advisory, which you can view by clicking here or by visiting RPGC.com, to help guide interested parties in understanding the details of the Settlement.

The Advisory is not legal advice nor a call to action (you all get to decide that part).  My aim is to offer information based on my learnings from talking with attorneys and from reviewing the Settlement document myself. The documents can also be used by you to explain the issues to your respective Legal Departments and other Senior Managers so you can all make a better informed decision on how to proceed. Of course, I also recommend reviewing the Settlement itself in full if you haven’t already done so.

If you’d like additional information, desire clarification on the issues, or would like contact information for appropriate Legal advice, do not hesitate to contact me.

As you might have noticed, this blog has been slow to get off the ground! René has been hard at work helping companies with their payments issues, and as a result, hasn’t had much time to create blog posts. There have been some changes to the site, however–our @OnPayments Twitter feed is now on the sidebar, and there is a link to the Twitter page so that you can follow us there. We would love to have guest bloggers, so if you are interested or know someone who might be, please contact us at info@rpgc.com.

My name is Heather and I am the admin for Perspectives on Payments. I’d like to take a moment to discuss this site, since I have been asked by a few people what kind of blog tool and theme has been used to create perspectivesonpayments.com. This is a WordPress site, running the Thesis Theme from DIYthemes. It was created in April of 2011 and I have been doing some updating here and there since then.

My goal is for this site to become a place where one can find and participate in lively discussions about current payments topics, as well as being a sounding board for René’s thoughts on issues such as mobile payments vs. mobile wallets. In January, René is planning a blog post on that very theme. Stay tuned!

Before I begin “blogging”, let me introduce (or re-introduce as the case might be) myself to you out there in the Payments Industry.

After five years as Senior Director of Industry Relations and Strategy for PayPal, I am striking out on my own again and re-launching RPGC Group. Those of you who have known me for a while know that I founded RPGC Group following my tenure as the head of Global Payments at Amazon.com in 2002. I led RPGC through four thriving years, consulting for companies like Google, Symantec, PayPal, Cybersource, First Data, Visa International, American Greetings, Netgiro in Sweden, and Pago in Germany. In 2006, PayPal came courting and I put my consultancy business on the back burner for a while.

Why did I leave PayPal? PayPal is a great company and I thoroughly enjoyed working for them. But, to be honest, I grew a little restless. My aim is to bring my views and ideas on how to make remote and global payments more efficient and cost-effective to a larger audience. As before, RPGC Group will continue to focus on “remote payments” or payments where the consumer is not present such as e-commerce and mobile payments. I will also continue to help companies address their international payments needs so they can take advantage of expanded markets and suppliers. For a more detailed description of all services available, please check the RPGC website at rpgc.com.

I am thrilled to have my “RPGC hat” again, and I am sure that I will be bumping into many of you at conferences soon. I will be in Austin at the NACHA Payments Conference beginning April 3; if you see me around, stop me to say hello and tell me what you think about all of the interesting developments that are happening in payments at the moment.

Now, on to this blog…

Really, the question these days is not whether to blog, but why not? For me, the idea is a very exciting one. I am glad to have this format to share information and open up a dialogue on the payments issues facing companies today. With Durbin on the horizon, mobile payments gaining strength, the SEPA deadline controversies in Europe, as well as the many other pressing topics creating buzz in the payments industry right now, there is a lot to discuss!

Please come back to check our future postings and post your own views.  Or, send me a private email.  I would love to hear what you have to say.