Next Generation Debit: The Final Frontier

Aug. 1, 2012 - PRLog -- Boston, MA -- The traditional debit card account is being quietly supplanted by developers using proxy currencies and token accounts to create new forms of pay now products. In a new report, Next Generation Debit: The Final Frontier, Mercator Advisory Group examines the future of debit cards in a rapidly evolving online payments environment.

In this emerging debit market analysis, Mercator Advisory Group suggests the possibility that the next generation of debit will be strongly impacted by the development of cash proxies and account tokens as means of:

Hardening security to protect consumer spending accounts

Controlling cost of acceptance

Replacing traditional cash within a digital economy

"The final frontier of debit product development lies in the reimagining of what a cash currency is and how best to protect sources of cash funding in a manner that is cost-effective and efficient for all stakeholders," comments Patricia Hewitt, director of Mercator Advisory Group's Debit Advisory Service and author of the report.

Major highlights of this report include:

A review of virtual currency schemes with the context of new forms of monetary exchange marketplaces

An examination of the leading marketing dynamics affecting the development of new forms of online token accounts

A discussion of the business model changes inherent in these emerging payment and currency forms

The ways formerly niche products designed for online gamers are evolving into broader payment forms.

This report is 25 pages long and has 12 exhibits.

Entities mentioned in this report include: Bitcoin, PayPal, iDEAL, Dwolla, MintChip, Facebook Credits, AurumXchange, MtGox, Mazooma, and Secure Vault Payment.

Members of Mercator Advisory Group's Debit Advisory Service have access to this report as well as the upcoming research for the year ahead, presentations, analyst access and other membership benefits.
Please visit us online at www.mercatoradvisorygroup.com.

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About Mercator Advisory Group
Mercator Advisory Group is the leading, independent research and advisory services firm exclusively focused on the payments and banking industries. We deliver pragmatic and timely research and advice designed to help our clients uncover the most lucrative opportunities to maximize revenue growth and contain costs. Our clients range from the world's largest payment issuers, acquirers, processors, merchants and associations to leading technology providers and investors. Mercator Advisory Group is also the publisher of the online payments and banking news and information portal PaymentsJournal.com.