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Visa and MasterCard becoming public companies was both the best and worst thing to happen in the payments industry, according to panel of payment-network executives at SourceMedia's ATM, Debit & Prepaid Forum in Chandler, Ariz., yesterday. Jim Hanisch, executive vice president for network operations and corporate development at Co-op Financial Services, a credit union-owned electronic funds transfer company based in Rancho Cucamona, Calif., said he was worried that public ownership would lead the companies toward a focus on quarterly results and away from taking leadership on such long-term investments as chip cards. Leland Englebardt, group head of channel development for MasterCard Worldwide, said the increased transparency brought about by disclosure requirements would help the industry. Being a public company also led to MasterCard and Visa publishing their merchant rules on the Internet to help the industry understand them, Englebardt said. SourceMedia publishes CardLine.
