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The Payments System Research function is responsible for monitoring and analyzing domestic and international payments system developments. Following is the department's latest work.

Payments System Research News
The Changing Retail Payments Landscape: What Role for Central Banks?
An international payments policy conference hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Nov. 9-10, 2009, explored the changing retail payments landscape and assessed the role of central bank policies in this quickly evolving area. Participants included industry representatives, policymakers, academics and other payments system stakeholders.

October Briefing
The Benefits of Collecting and Reporting Payment Fraud Statistics for the United States
This briefing by Rick Sullivan argues that publication of fraud statistics helps the payment industry to coordinate security efforts, provides useful information for policymakers, and helps to promote consumer confidence in payments. However, while other countries regularly publish such statistics, it is an open question whether they will become available in the United States.


Working Paper
Spin-offs: Theory and Evidence
This paper provides a "passive learning" model of firm entry by spin-off and predicts a high correlation between spin-offs and parent exit. The theoretical findings are tested and confirmed on a unique data set of the U.S. automobile industry.

Product Innovation and Firm Survival in the U.S. ATM and Debit Card Network Industry
This paper studies product innovation and network survival in the U.S. ATM/debit card industry.

Why Do Card Issuers Charge Proportional Fees?
This paper explains why payment card companies charge consumers and merchants fees which are proportional to the transaction values instead of charging a fixed per-transaction fee.

The Economics of Two-Sided Payment Card Markets: Pricing, Adoption and Usage
This paper provides a new theory to explain pricing, adoption and usage in two-sided payment card markets.


Briefing Articles
A Backward Glance While Looking Forward
This article takes a backward glance at some of the early emerging payments nearly a decade after their introduction and examines their status today and where they may be heading.

International Remittances
This article by Terri Bradford describes some of the means by which individuals remit funds internationally--informal networks, money transfer operators, financial institutions and other options--and discusses some of the factors that may influence the choice of provider.

Developments in Merchant Acquiring
This article by Terri Bradford and Christian Hung discusses the origin and roles of merchant acquiring; the models for acquiring; and relevant developments in legislation, PCI compliance, and the Single Euro Payments Area.

Developments in Interchange Fees in the United States and Abroad
This article by Terri Bradford and Fumiko Hayashi provides an update on developments in interchange fees in the United States and recent public authority involvement in interchange fees abroad.

Books
A Guide to the ATM and Debit Card Industry: 2006 Update
This 2006 update by Fumiko Hayashi, Richard J. Sullivan, and Stuart E. Weiner documents a number of important developments in patterns and trends in the ATM and debit card industry since their work was first published in 2003.

 

                   
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