HSBC Bank USA said it is targeting five markets with its decoupled debit card.
"Some are going to succeed. Some are going to fail," said Daniel J. Eckert, the head of product venture, acquisition, and development in the bank's retail services unit. "It's too early to tell."
It takes eight to 10 months to strike a deal with a merchant and another eight to 10 months to implement a cobranding program, Mr. Eckert said in an interview last month at the Nacha Payments conference in Las Vegas, after a session where he discussed the decoupled debit product, OptiPay.
HSBC Bank USA has partnered with Tempo Payments Inc. to offer the decoupled debit cards, which route transactions across the automated clearing house network. Banks can issue them to any consumer, and the cards can access accounts at any bank account.
Mr. Eckert said the cards are "a way we can diversify our product offerings."
His bank's parent, HSBC Holdings PLC of London, is the No. 3 issuer of MasterCard Inc. branded cards. The decoupled cards in the United States carry the MasterCard logo, Mr. Eckert said. "We view them very much as a partner in the development of decoupled debit."
HSBC also issues cards with brands from Visa Inc., American Express Co., and Discover Financial Services.
"There could well be a day when American Express and Discover entertain decoupled debit," Mr. Eckert said.
