Past Articles
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Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) Migration to Chip Cards - The First of Many Hills to Climb
Jan 2, 2024In late Spring 2023, industry partners began collaborating on an updated ISO spec used for EBT cards to accommodate a migration to chip technology. Sounds easy, right? Most merchants have upgraded to chip card terminals by now, so what's one more card with a chip on it? Many of us active in payments during the initial EMV migration still bear the scars.
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When Less is More, the EMVCo C-8 Contactless Kernel
Dec 6, 2023In October of 2022, EMVCo published a new specification for a contactless kernel. While that may be a yawn-inducing announcement for many people, the potential significance of this specification should not be overlooked.
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Exciting News for MAG Merchant Members in 2024!
Dec 4, 2023As the year draws to a close, we at the Merchant Advisory Group (MAG) want to express our heartfelt gratitude for your unwavering support as a valued merchant member throughout the past year.
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An Inside Look from A MAG Board Member!
Dec 1, 2023The MAG asked Board Member Director Ken Grogan of Wakefern Food Corp. about his journey through his payments profession and his long-time involvement with the MAG.
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Condensed Learning, Expanded Skills: Microlearning for Payments Professionals
Nov 17, 2023As your organization continues to evolve in today's fast-paced payments landscape, our team recognizes the need for ongoing learning delivered efficiently. That is why we are excited to expand our on-demand offerings to include microlearning in 2024, providing condensed and targeted learning experiences focused on critical topics like tokenization, real-time payments, and emerging payments technology.
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The Federal Reserve Proposes A Debit Rate Reduction, Open Banking Comment Period Open at CFPB, and More!
Nov 8, 2023There is a renewed focus on payments policy in 2023. This year, most of the discussion has revolved around the Credit Card Competition Act, as card-focused legislation has not seen the floors of Congress since 2010. However, there are many externalities in card issuance and acceptance that have kept the focus of regulators: mainly the Federal Reserve, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). These three agencies have each announced activity regarding U.S. payments.
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What are the quarterly brand releases and how should merchants be evaluating the impacts?
Nov 2, 2023Late in the summer, merchants received notices from their acquirers, gateways, and payment service providers (PSPs) about the October brand release. Nothing can wreak havoc on a P&L or budget like unexpected fee changes. Yet, while fee changes get most of the attention, these quarterly release cycles contain so much more than just changes in fees. The quarterly brand releases often include changes to processing requirements, new or updated data fields and values, compliance program updates, and chargeback rules changes that may target transactions within a specific channel, geography, or merchant segment.
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Why Merchants Should Monitor Open Banking Developments
Oct 24, 2023It has been a busy year in payments with the Reg II clarification enforcement and the launch of Fed Now, but there is no rest for the weary. The CFPB announced a new set of regulations for open banking and proposed a rulemaking in early October. Earlier this summer, Director Chopra wrote, “The CFPB is working to accelerate the shift to open banking through a new personal data rights rule intended to break down these obstacles, jumpstart competition, and protect financial privacy.” With this as a backdrop, the payments landscape will be set for more change as early as 2024. The proof will be in the implementation of these rules, but Director Chopra hopes this will be a good change in the financial services industry.
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MAG Annual Conference & Tech Forum 2023: Two New Milestones and a Major Announcement
Oct 19, 2023Year-over-year, MAG Annual Conference and Tech Forum has continued to increase in size and offerings and this year’s conference was no different. We reached a milestone of more than 1,150 attendees, breaking last year’s record for our largest attendance in MAG’s history. However, while the number of attendees has grown, the event still provided a comfortable and welcoming environment for everyone. The atmosphere had a palpable energy felt by all – robust attendance in all sessions, active engagement and interaction between the audience and speakers, and three nights of lively networking.
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2024 MAG Sponsorship Restructure: Explained
Oct 17, 2023On September 10, 2023, we hosted our MAG members and sponsors in Atlanta, Georgia, for our 2023 Annual Conference and Tech Forum. It was the perfect celebration of the MAG’s 15-year anniversary and was our largest conference yet – with over 1,100 attendees. Prior to the conference, we announced a new sponsorship structure, which will go into effect on January 1, 2024.
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The Value of Being Inquisitive
Oct 4, 2023Throughout my career, some of the hardest decisions I have made were the ones where I needed to make an instant decision that affected an unknown future. The reason I feel these are the hardest decisions to make is they must be made on assumptions. Often, when gathering information for these decisions, those supplying the information presented it with bias.
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Securing data in transit: A guide to PCI-validated P2PE
Oct 2, 2023As data breaches and cyberattacks grow more common, businesses need robust security measures to protect sensitive customer payment data. This is especially evident in the retail industry, where an increasing number of acceptance endpoints amplifies merchants’ vulnerability to data compromises and breaches.
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MAG Continues its Global Expansion with the 2023 APAC Summit, 1-2 November
Sep 28, 2023Following the success in 2022 of our first in-person event in Singapore, we are thrilled to share MAG is hosting its second annual APAC Summit, 1-2 November 2023 at the Westin Singapore.
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Five x Fifteen
Sep 8, 2023Maureen Elworthy reflects on 15 years of advocating and collaborating on behalf of merchants, consumers, and payment providers. First with AHOLD USA and now with JPMorgan Chase, Maureen has a uniquely valuable perspective into the ways the MAG has empowered merchants to create, grow, and protect enduring customer relationships over the past decade and a half. Covering interchange, alternative payments, the Durbin Amendment, transaction security, and more, here are five questions for a MAG supporter!
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Don’t miss the 2023 Annual Conference and Tech Forum!
Aug 25, 2023We are excited to welcome you to our upcoming MAG Annual Conference and Tech Forum in Atlanta, September 10-13, where we will be commemorating MAG's 15-year anniversary. The MAG works hard to create a conference that offers many networking events, advanced payments discussions, and a wide variety of education, making the Annual Conference an amazing event to attend.
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Coming Soon – Exploring Payments Technology
Aug 25, 2023The MAG is proud to announce the launch of our seventh eLearning course, Exploring Payments Technology. We began our digital learning journey in early 2021, with Merchant Payments 101 – which to date has over 500 graduates, with nearly 22,000 user visits and 1,200 individuals who have started the course.
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Tokenization in 2023: Where is the Payments System Going
Jul 31, 2023A lot has been written about tokenization since the first big data breach in 2013. The focus today is to talk about the challenges with tokens and how merchants can affect change.
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Expanding the Merchants’ Voice
Jul 25, 2023Have you ever wondered how decisions are made regarding payments? Or how you can have a voice in the implementation of payments? At the MAG, we are thinking about these things daily. After all, the MAG’s mission is ensuring merchants have a voice in the payments ecosystem.
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Credit Card Competition Act Reintroduced
Jul 21, 2023The Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA) was reintroduced with bicameral and bipartisan support on June 7, 2023. Structured very similarly to last year’s duo of bills, the CCCA outlines a mandate that card issuers must enable two non-competing networks on their credit cards, with the intent of creating more competition in the card issuing and card network space.
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Finding B2B Buyers Hidden in Your B2C Checkout
Jun 30, 2023B2B sales look a lot like B2C sales these days. For retailers that typically focus on consumers, it is likely your company already has business buyers spending with you but you may not know who they are...yet.
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