• Board Member Corner

    An Inside Look at the Last 15 Years With the MAG: A Conversation with Founding Board Member Chris Priebe
    Chris Priebe

    An Inside Look at the Last 15 Years With the MAG: A Conversation with Founding Board Member Chris Priebe

    Jun 6, 2023

    Fifteen years ago, Chris Priebe, Senior Director – Treasury Payments and Risk, Southwest Airlines and Vice Chair, MAG Board of Directors, felt fortunate enough to be in the room at Southwest Airlines Headquarters with a few really ambitious merchants who were gearing up for an exciting endeavor. The goal of this endeavor was to make a merchant-led educational and advocacy group, now known as the Merchant Advisory Group (MAG), that would bring merchants together for two semi-annual meetings.

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  • Evolution in Payments

    To surcharge or not to surcharge? Making sense of payment method incentive programs.
    Kelly Andrus

    To surcharge or not to surcharge? Making sense of payment method incentive programs.

    May 24, 2023

    Merchants who want to incentivize customers to use a lower-cost payment method can surcharge credit card transactions, perhaps charge a convenience fee, or even offer a cash discount. But merchants beware: a complex matrix of rules stands between you and the decision. As you begin to consider surcharging, it is important to consider the tangled web of requirements to be evaluated from multiple sources including case law, legislation, court actions, state/city laws, card brand rules, and even your own merchant agreements.

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  • Membership Update

    Membership News:  Spring has Sprung…and so has MAG Growth!
    Kristi Simonett

    Membership News: Spring has Sprung…and so has MAG Growth!

    May 18, 2023

    We are excited to share that in addition to our continued MAG member and sponsor growth, our internal team has grown as well. With our focus on growing the MAG, we are targeting several industry verticals for membership growth, including eCommerce, healthcare, insurance, education, hospitality, gaming, fitness, and, as always, the Retail Top 100.

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  • Innovate Now

    Get Involved in Faster Payments
    Chris Storbeck

    Get Involved in Faster Payments

    May 3, 2023

    There is a lot of attention on Faster Payments these days, but there is also a lot of confusion. The United States is in a unique position where, come summer of 2023, there will be two real-time payments networks: The Clearing House (TCH), owned by the banks, and FedNow that the Fed will launch this summer. This competitive landscape highlights the endorsement of real-time payments and will drive innovation.

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  • CEO Update

    Debit Routing: Lowering Your Cost of Payments Acceptance Through Taking Control
    John Drechny

    Debit Routing: Lowering Your Cost of Payments Acceptance Through Taking Control

    May 1, 2023

    Over ten years ago, Congress passed legislation aimed at making debit acceptance more competitive. The law, known as Regulation II or the Durbin Amendment, locked in merchants’ right to choose between two unaffiliated networks in the routing of a PIN debit transaction.

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  • What's up in Washington

    The 118th Congress Convenes and Regulatory Activity Kicks Off the New Year
    Josh Pynn

    The 118th Congress Convenes and Regulatory Activity Kicks Off the New Year

    Mar 30, 2023

    With such an exciting 2022 for payments policy, it is important to look ahead at what 2023 will bring. In 2023, we will see the enforcement date of the Federal Reserve Board’s (Fed) Regulation II Debit Routing Clarification come into effect on July 1, renewed efforts on the Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA), and regulatory agencies such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will remain hard at work. Below is an update as to what is going on in DC.

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  • Education

    Leverage MAG Resources to Expand Your Growth in the Payments Ecosystem
    Leah Collins

    Leverage MAG Resources to Expand Your Growth in the Payments Ecosystem

    Mar 29, 2023

    There are many ways to utilize the MAG’s member benefits and available resources to help move your business forward.

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  • Payments Technology

    A Closer Look at ISO 20022
    Steve Cole

    A Closer Look at ISO 20022

    Mar 22, 2023

    For most of the last 40 years, the payments industry has primarily relied on the ISO 8583 standard for processing payment transactions. More recently another standard, ISO 20022, has begun making appearances in certain payment applications in the U.S. ISO 20022 is a global standard for exchanging electronic financial messages of all sorts. While it may seem to many that 20022 is a new standard, it has actually been around for almost two decades being first published by ISO in 2004 and has been adopted in a number of countries around the globe.

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  • Conference Update

    MAG Mid-Year Conference and Tech Forum was THE Place to Be
    Andrea Rouse

    MAG Mid-Year Conference and Tech Forum was THE Place to Be

    Mar 8, 2023

    MAG’s conferences continue to grow! With nearly 900 merchants and sponsors in attendance, we once again surpassed previous in-person attendance numbers for our Mid-Year Conference & Tech Forum. The amount of active networking throughout the event created a palpable buzz - supporting the fact that MAG Conferences are the ‘can’t-miss-event’ in the payments industry.

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  • International Perspective

    The True Cost of Buy Now Pay Later
    Dhun Karai

    The True Cost of Buy Now Pay Later

    Feb 13, 2023

    The Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) industry appears to be on the brink of a shake-up. On the surface, the deal is simple: consumers have a way to split their purchase into multiple payments over time, and merchants pay service fees to the providers. In theory, the flexibility should drive additional sales to retailers, but is this model the best idea for both consumers and retailers? In this article, Grant Thornton Australia’s Merchant Payments Advisory lead, Partner Dhun Karai, outlines the current BNPL challenges and what the proposed tightening of regulations and increasing consumer discontent might translate to for merchants. She encourages merchants to speak up about their wishes for the future of BNPL products to protect both shoppers and merchants from escalating costs and increase the attractiveness for both sides of the retail industry.

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  • Board Chair Update

    Payments…“Life in the Fast Lane”
    Kathy Hanna

    Payments…“Life in the Fast Lane”

    Dec 20, 2022

    As we approach the end of another year, the speed of change in the payments industry is not slowing down. Many areas of change are accelerating to address issues in the continuing growth of digital payments.

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MAG MEMBER HIGHLIGHT

From Student to Teacher in Payments

New to Payments? Immerse yourself in the MAG and you will be on the stage sharing your knowledge in no time!

MAG SPONSOR HIGHLIGHT

Oliver Wyman —  The CFPB and BNPL: Perspectives on New Report

​Buy Now, Pay Later: Market trends and consumer impacts released by CFPB on 9/15/22
The Merchant Advisory Group

Driving positive change and innovation in the payments industry that serves the merchants interest through collaboration, education, and advocacy.