"We welcome the innovation we see today in Europe to deliver solutions that enable secure card acceptance for small businesses that have not traditionally accepted cards," noted Stanley Skoglund, SVP, Payment Systems Risk at Visa Europe, in a statement.
These let sole traders and small businesses accept card payments, often for the first time ever since previous card acceptance schemes would have been too cost-prohibitive.
The most immediate ones, says Visa's Mr Keeley, are bad payment infrastructures and limited card acceptance by vendors.
Visa said it had "concerns that the Federal Reserve's proposal includes artificial caps on debit interchange that do not realistically reflect the value of card acceptance".
Howard Lefkowitz, the chief commercial officer of Row 44, the in-flight satellite broadband provider, says that before he visits another country he likes to get a small amount of its local currency, because credit card acceptance can vary.
Mr. Boer was until last year the chief executive of Accept.com, a credit-card acceptance service that he founded for Internet auction sellers and which was later sold to Amazon.com.
In the United States, the Government Accountability Office last week issued a report showing that consumers who did not use credit cards "may be made worse off by paying higher prices for goods and services, as merchants pass on their increasing card acceptance costs to their customers".
And while I might not see eye to eye with the Greek on that point, I still find the need, between sojourns in search of what's new or next, for something cheap, quick and utterly delicious, without frippery like seats, credit card acceptance and ambiance.
There are mini-cards for a keychain and wireless card acceptance terminals.
Merchants must cater to this market need with sophisticated card acceptance systems.
