The Next Generation

  In your hands is the inaugural issue of Cards&Payments, the successor to Cards & Payments magazine. During SourceMedia's Card Forum & Expo in ChampionsGate, Fla., last month, I had a chance to speak with many of you about the name change. Surprisingly, I received no negative reaction to the move.
  At first I was taken aback by that. After all, CCM had been around for 18 years, so I expected there would be some readers who would have expressed concern about the name change.
  Instead, I heard such comments as "great move" or "definitely the right direction." When I asked the individuals who made those comments why they felt that way, it became clear to me that our readers generally understood why we changed the title: It simply was time for the magazine to undergo an image makeover. Though CCM covered trends affecting many different forms of payment, the name reflected only one segment of the ever-increasing payments landscape.
  For those of you who were long-time readers of CCM, I want to assure you that Cards&Payments is not abandoning coverage of credit card-related matters. In fact, this very issue addresses some of the major topics affecting that market, including bankruptcy reform, rising credit card debt among the nation's young adults, and interchange disputes between issuers and merchants.
  This issue also addresses other issues affecting payments, including funds transfers and how they may affect financial institutions' account relationships with money-services organizations, prepaid card providers and other customers. Under the Patriot Act, the institutions face penalties for not reporting suspicious account activities, so a growing number are closing their riskier clients' accounts.
  This is the type of article that probably would have been reported in CCM as well, though some readers might not remembered six months later seeing the article in a "credit card" publication. The new name better reflects our broad coverage of the payments industry, and hopefully it will help to avoid such confusion.
  After you have had a chance to take a look at this issue of Cards&Payments, I'd be interested in hearing your reaction.
  Please feel free to drop me an e-mail at jeffrey.green sourcemedia.com.
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