Payment card systems
Payment cards are just some of the payment instruments used for retail payment purposes. They enable cashless payments to be made at the point of sale. In broad terms, they can be divided into three categories: pay later (credit cards), pay now (debit cards) and pay before (prepaid cards). In addition to consumers and merchants, there are two other groups that are involved in payment card systems: issuers (the companies that issue the cards) and acquirers (the companies that recruit merchants). The coordination of all the parties involved is multi-layered and complex, not least because payment card systems are two-sided markets which are governed by laws of economics that differ considerably from those governing conventional goods markets.
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Report "An examination of the economics of payment card systems"
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