Based on low-cost settlement through the ACH network, a new debit card product has emerged that many payment industry observers are heralding as the beginning of a revolution / next generation product in the retail card market. The industry has referred to this product as “ACH Decoupled Debit”. The term arose from the fact that the debit card will be issued from a third party that does not hold the cardholder’s savings or checking account and thus “decouples” the card from the traditional bank / depository institution. In this emerging payment space, National Payment Card is referred to as an “Intermediate Service Provider”. Decoupled Debit is an electronic funds transfer that creates the ACH-based debit product which levels the playing field giving National Payment Card, which functions as the “Intermediate Service Provider”, access to the debit card account which in the past had been the exclusive domain of the consumer’s financial institution (FI).
Merchants are seeking /demanding a relief from the current business model and monopolistic pricing tendencies of credit card, debit card and payment processors. National Payment Card is capitalizing on this opportunity for a new payment mechanism and has developed the infrastructure and deployed this distributed technology that bypasses the two major card brands and their interchange schedules.
