An Update on Trends in the Debit Card Market

On March 20, 2007, the Payment Cards Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia hosted a workshop led by Stan Paur, chairman of PULSE EFT Association LP, a Discover Financial Services LLC company, and Tony Hayes, vice president of Dove Consulting, a division of Hitachi Consulting. Paur and Hayes shared findings from PULSE's 2007 Debit Issuer Study, conducted by Dove Consulting with 55 debit card issuers of varying sizes. In examining developments in the debit card market, Hayes and Paur shared survey results and provided additional insights into four key areas: performance metrics, networks and interchange, debit rewards, and debit card fraud. This paper describes trends and issues affecting the debit card market in each of these four areas, in an effort to expand understanding of this dynamic and increasingly important category of consumer payments.