In the midst of tumultuous times in the financial services market, concerns about the credit card industry have come to the forefront, with intensified scrutiny accompanying those concerns. Duncan Douglass was part of a roundtable discussion that appeared in the May 2008 issue of Transaction World Magazine that focused on a wide range of questions surrounding the current environment.
"One of the big issues I see playing out in the industry over the next several years is the tension between new payment technologies (such as biometric, contactless and other alternatives to traditional plastic card payments) and fraud prevention and security," says Douglass. "The industry still struggles greatly with fraud and data security involving traditional wallet cards — as the industry continues to push new payment technologies, those fraud and security concerns will likely also increase. If fraud cannot be kept in check, the industry is going to have a tough time gaining widespread adoption of technologies that may be perceived as inherently less secure."
Douglass went on to say that “the consumer credit meltdown really took hold during the second half of last year and it will be during the second half of this year that we will really see the push for a regulatory and legislative response."