Green, Editor-in-Chief

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Financial institutions over the years have done a good job converting billions of transactions once made via costly paper checks to electronic ones initiated with debit cards or automated clearinghouse funds transfers.

Four years have passed since health savings accounts entered the U.S. marketplace, yet the consumer-driven health plans once expected to help bolster debit card issuance and transaction volume generally have yet to catch on.

The ability to use mobile phones to initiate contactless Near Field Communication payments is coming. It just might take awhile to arrive. And it likely will arrive more quickly in some countries than in others.

While editing this month's issue, I found particularly relevant a quote by Philip W. Tomlinson, chairman and CEO of Total System Services Inc.: "We've got to follow our existing customers as they expand globally, and we are seeing an awful lot of that now."

It will be interesting to see what transpires in the coming weeks in Congress, as at least two U.S. lawmakers appear poised to introduce legislation that could produce sweeping changes that affect how credit card issuers and cardholders work with one another.