Boston Fed Assess Impact of “Anti-Steering” Case on Consumer Payment and Bank Profits

A judge last week approved a settlement surrounding allegations that MasterCard and Visa were prohibiting merchants from “steering” consumers toward use of lower-cost payment instruments. In this exclusive NEXTcast interview, Market Platforms Dynamics founder David S. Evans talks with Scott Schuh, director of Consumer Payments Research Center at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, about his new paper that examines the effects the litigation may have on consumer payment choice and profitability of FIs.

Related article: Fed’s Predictions for the Future of U.S. Mobile Payments

   

The paper also lays out consumers’ informational needs and ways to meet those needs, and includes extensive information on how credit cards have evolved into an indispensable payment instrument for consumers, banks, and merchants. The paper is available for download here.

What are your thoughts on the steering settlement? Share your comments below!


Bio: Scott Schuh is director of the Consumer Payments Research Center and a senior economist and policy advisor in the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. He joined the Bank in 1997 after serving as an economist for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System since 1991. Schuh also worked for President Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers, the Congressional Budget Office, and the U.S. Census Bureau. He taught at Johns Hopkins University and Boston College. Schuh’s current research is on consumer payment choice and its relation to money and banking. Schuh earned a B.A. in economics and journalism from California State University, Sacramento in 1985, and a Ph.D. and M.A. in economics from Johns Hopkins University in 1992.