DRF Survey Reveals Merchant Uncertainty on Durbin's Impact

BROOKFIELD, Wis., Sept. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- A survey at the Direct Response Forum of 169 executives from some of the largest retailers in the world reveals continued uncertainty about how the recently passed Durbin bill will affect merchants' business practices. When questioned more about interchange fees and Durbin, 41% indicated they will not be passing on debit card fee savings to their customers, but 56% said they don't know what impact the new rules will have on their business.  Interchange fees, alternative payments, and PCI/Fraud top the list of concerns of the payment professionals.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110816/DC53140 )

The prospects for mobile payments has changed significantly in the last six months with 11% of merchants reporting they have a solution and a full 43% will be implementing a solution in the next 12 months.  In a follow up question only 40% of respondents reported they are comfortable that mobile payment options offer a secure credit card environment.  This represents a sizable opportunity for mobile phone providers and payment systems to develop a secure solution to what promises to be a rapidly expanding market.

"In the last six months mobile payments and other alternative payment schemes are becoming important areas of opportunity for payment professionals.  Alternative payments have replaced chargebacks as one of the top three issues on the minds of payment professionals," says Chantal Gaspie, DRF Executive Chair.

A popular question at this year's DRF was "What does tokenization really accomplish for a merchant"?  The merchant survey revealed that 31% of retailers currently support a tokenization system, while 38% will not be implementing in the near future. There are still many unknowns regarding the ability of tokenization to reduce PCI scope for merchants.

As with last year's results, payment professionals still indicated that lack of developmental bandwidth, insufficient budget and staffing are standing in the way of contributing to improved profitability for their company.

Every year the Direct Response Forum attracts the top card not present payment professionals from around the world to the annual DRF.  The merchant members of the DRF represent billions of dollars of credit and debit transactions every year. The average executive responding to the survey had over 10 years of payment experience.  For more information on the survey results sign up for the DRF Quarterly at www.directresponseforum.org or contact us at [email protected].

About Direct Response Forum, Inc.

The Direct Response Forum (www.directresponseforum.org) brings together leading direct merchants, acquirers, card companies and service providers for two days of interactive panels, breakout sessions, and roundtable discussions focused on key topics affecting the customer/card not present (CNP) merchant community.  The Direct Response Forum is a not-for-profit educational organization that is managed by a Board of Directors that are executives at leading companies including Affinion Group, Ancestry.com, Comcast Cable, Digital River, Expedia, Inc., L. L. Bean, Inc., Rosetta Stone, ShopNBC, TransAmerica Life and Protection, and Western Union.

SOURCE Direct Response Forum, Inc.

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