Because only the first two are completed by banks (many of them competing in this area). Payment terminals are manufactured and (often) distributed independently. Clearing & settlement is run by a number of competing networks (Amex, Visa & Master Card, ...) which are inter-operable. Card & chip manufacture is also standardised but run my competing companies.
Then, of course we have the world of e-payments, which is a whole new universe.
As you can see, a lot of innovation, a lot of competition. No justification whatsoever for the state to monopolise this market.
> The account management? > The cash distributors? > The payment terminals? > The clearing & settlement? > The card & chip manufacture?
Bullets one, two and four.
Manufacturing the terminals doesn't have to be done by the banks, but they should have in-house service staff who can take one of them apart and put it back together again, just to make sure that they don't get Diebolded. And the cards are just ordinary consumer electronics with hard-coded encryption.
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
