I am encouraged by the U.S. consumers’ persistence in the face of many challenges, including a payroll tax hike last January, a government shutdown, significant uncertainties about future tax policy, and the implications of health-care reform. Consistent job growth has added to wage and salary growth, which has supported spending.
That is one reason why payment cards are so popular – because most of the need for manual entry is removed. The need to know a recipient’s account details is another challenge for many payment systems. One of our oldest payment methods – the cheque – deals with that by only requiring the recipient’s name, with the recipient doing the rest.