MasterCard Worldwide member banks have issued 19 million PayPass-enabled cards and tokens accepted at more than 55,000 merchant locations, including vending machines worldwide. But some panelists during the EFT Network Showcase at the ATM, Debit & Prepaid Forum earlier this month in Carlsbad, Calif., expressed doubts about PayPass’ viability, Card Technology’s sister publication CardLine Global reported.

Before they spoke, however, Patricia Preston, a senior vice president at MasterCard, extolled the benefits of PayPass. She said PayPass would improve a bank’s debit card business because it helps speed up transaction times and because more purchases of less than $25 are moving from cash to debit cards. And consumer spending increases 28% to 42% with PayPass, she added.

Preston had just completed her presentation when most of the other panelists took off the gloves. Steve Rathgaber, president and chief operating officer of NYCE Payments Network, which bills itself as connecting more than 2,500 financial institutions with more than 280,000 ATMs and more than 1.5 million point-of-sale locations in the United States, told the audience that PayPass was a bad idea.

“Just because the technology is there, it doesn’t make it a good product,” he said. Rathgaber added that, to consumers, payment-industry consistency works, and new technology may be more confusing and less productive than older technology.

Dave Schneider, president of the Pulse EFT Association, said he had not seen much enthusiasm for the adoption of PayPass, noting that the industry was moving toward mobile payments. And G. Kirk Ergang, senior vice president of the Star Network, mocked PayPass. “Don’t you just like those ads for contactless cards?” he asked the audience.

Many members of the crowd mildly chuckled. Stacey Pinkerd, Visa USA’s senior vice president of consumer debit products, did not join in on the fray. He changed the subject. Visa offers payWave, which competes with PayPass. (2007-10-29)