COCONUT CREEK, Fla. -- National Payment Card Association (NPCA), a leading provider of merchant-branded PIN-based debit cards and mobile solutions, has announced it has been issued a fifth patent in the area of decoupled debit technology.
This most recent patent is in the mobile payments sector. "Decoupled debit" payment methods refer to situations in which U.S. checking account holders from any bank or credit union can accomplish an electronic payment without needing to use a card issued by the bank or credit union with which they have their checking or debit card. NPCA's decoupled debit technology is designed to be of particular interest to merchants seeking to have the lowest method of payment settlement fees in the marketplace, which now includes mobile payment.
"Today there are only a handful of brick-and-mortar retailers in the U.S. that have deployed mobile payment at the point of sale (POS)," said Joe Randazza, CEO of NPCA. "Consumers today can only use their mobile phones for payment at Cumberland Farms and Flash Foods, which operate on the NPCA platform. Mobile payment will only become scalable for consumer use when merchants can justify the investment required to upgrade their POS systems. NPCA's patent portfolio specifically addresses the business case for a merchant to make the infrastructure investment with the lowest cost settlement method available to merchants. In actual practice, NPCA inventions deployed in the marketplace have displaced several billions of dollars from being processed through Visa and MasterCard."
The patent is U.S. Patent Number 8,490,865, titled "Payment System and Methods." The patent contains 18 claims, including various claims useable for a consumer to fund a mobile wallet via an ACH payment method for the holder of a U.S. checking account with a financial institution to accomplish a purchase at a retail site.
NPCA, based in Coconut Creek, Fla., is the leading provider of brick and mortar alternative payment with 58 merchants throughout the United States. NPCA's patent portfolio contains dozens of independent claims for methods of payment and systems for ACH decoupled debit. NPCA is a member of the EFT Network, which is a part of the Electronic Check Council of the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA), the rule-making body for all electronic funds transfers made through ACH.
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