In recent years, regulators in various parts of the world have capped interchange fees on debit and credit cards. The justification for the caps rests to a large extent on the argument that these cards have, for certain merchants, become must-take cards rather than ‘wanna-take cards'. That is,...

On December 31st the high-profile test of stored-value cards in Manhattan's Upper West Side, the most important U.S. pilot to date, drew to a close after a 15-month run. The results were disappointing. This paper describes the organization of the trial, analyzes the results, and rounds up...