Sideswiped

"For every transaction that's authorized and funded by a financial institution, there's a merchant on the other end, and why is it that only one side makes all the decisions about the rules?" says Horwedel, of the Merchant Advisory Group. "I think as long as that is the case, there are going to be issues."

As card industry veteran Andrew Kahr observes, "The duopoly does not need to become cheaper or more efficient in order to compete."

"The shift into mobile has opened up opportunities for other players to consider more cost-effective, and therefore more widely desirable, alternatives," says Mallory Duncan, senior vice president of the National Retail Federation. "We now have the potential of using new and emerging networks ... as mechanisms for payment delivery that may or may not run through the traditional channels."