Paul Olivier, the executive vice president of consumer banking for Frost National Bank, has been elected the chairman of the financial institution oversight committee at Pulse EFT Association, the Houston debit network owned by Morgan Stanley.
Pulse announced the election last week.
Mr. Olivier, the committee's second chairman, has been a Pulse director since 2002. He succeeded Jerry Host, the president of general banking for Trustmark National Bank.
The committee was established two years ago, after Morgan Stanley bought Pulse. Before the purchase Pulse had been structured as an association of banks. It established the committee to ensure that banks retained a voice in Pulse's decision- making process, particularly regarding interchange.
Mr. Olivier said in an interview Friday that the committee has "veto power" on anything "that would negatively effect" any of the financial institutions, but that it has never used the power.
Instead, the banks have worked closely with Morgan Stanley's Discover Financial Services on developing products and services, such as Discover's signature debit card for consumers and its business debit card.
