Contents

  COVER STORY
  30 Here Comes EMV
  Europe faces an important deadline this month in its transition to the much-ballyhooed EMV smart card system that combines chips and PINs. The effects are being felt worldwide, but the U.S. is notable for its lack of EMV planning. Is fraud headed toward American shores?
  EDIOR'S NOTE
  4 Check This Out
  CARD WATCH
  6 Small Businesses Become Big
  On Plastic; European Banks Leave AmEx at Home; A Legal Challenge To Store Cards; and More.
  LOYALTY
  12 Troubles for Cobrands
  As airlines and other partners falter, cobranded card issuers are taking steps to bolster some of their most prized card programs while diversifying their cobranded relationships.
  COLLECTIONS & RECOVERY
  26 Collections Go Online
  Having successfully built an online channel to deliver marketing materials to cardholders, issuers are looking to leverage the Internet to boost recovery rates and make collections budgets go farther.
  MERCHANT ACQUIRING
  38 Web Portals Expand Their Payment Options
  America Online has teamed with smart Web providers to reinvent itself while Yahoo! sticks with solid services for smaller e-retailers. CCM reviews how two of the nation's largest Internet portals are expanding services for merchants as well as consumers.
  DEBIT CARD REPORT
  42 Discover Finds Its Debit Pulse
  Discover's planned acquisition of the Pulse EFT network is a watershed event in the debit card world, but successful execution will be critical to its success.
  AFTERTHOUGHTS
  48 Heading in the Right Direction