As the world becomes ever more international, the role of the major card schemes becomes ever more important.

For the schemes themselves it is critical how they differentiate themselves to cardholders and participating banks alike; and for those banks it is vital that they have effective interactions with the schemes.

Key issues facing different schemes include:

• What new products or services should I offer? How can I rapidly develop and launch those new offerings, and how best to encourage and drive their rapid adoption amongst banks and cardholders alike?
• How should I differentiate myself from both traditional competitors and newer players, such as PayPal or Google?
• How to make the most of the contactless payment and Near Field Communication (NFC) opportunities?
• What are the likely future fraud and risk management threats, and how should I mitigate against them?
• How can I streamline my operational processes to improve efficiency?

From a member perspective, as the major "four party" payment schemes change from the old association model, it is more important than ever that financial institutions actively manage their scheme relationships. For example, an FI should have a dedicated compliance and scheme management function, reporting at the executive or board level. Without such a unit in place, members could find that they are facing extremely heavy financial penalties for non-compliance. These financial penalties could run into millions – a direct hit on the P&L.

For example, there is an ongoing need to recognise the potential impacts of and efficiently to address the numerous bulletins and members' letters, rule changes and other communications from the schemes. At the same time there is a need to put in place suitable processes for dealing with internal card scheme-related queries.