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A Russian card payments scheme has been expected for a while now. It should come as no great surprise. It will join the growing number of alternatives to Visa and MasterCard.

This is a great example of consumers using new devices and payment technologies to improve the user experience and convenience.

It does though highlight the need for card processig rules to keep up with current options and practices.

The economics of card acceptance underpin the whole card payments industry. These dictate the costs and who has to pay them. Many stakeholders do not have this specialised knowledge and so are unaware of the cost implications. Changing from Face to Face to Customer Not Present means different rates will apply.

Who will the winners be? The card issuer; merchant acquirer; merchant or consumer? The ones impacted most are likely to be those least aware of the intracies.

The time has come for clearer definitions of "mobile payments". It covers a wide variety of scenarios and use cases. It is too broad.

We should start using more specific terms when we are discussing the topic. 

One good example is the increasing usage of the term MPOS when talking about the use of a smartphone (in conjunction with a PIN pad) as a payment acceptance terminal for micro-merchants.