Debitman Card Co. made three important announcements this week:

• Raised $8.7 million in a Series B financing from Cardinal Venture Capital, Selby Venture Partners, and HSBC Retail Services
• Received a U.S. patent on the company’s idea of an interoperable, merchant-based debit system
• Designated HSBC to market Debitman to its customers

Debitman has been struggling for years to make good on the promise of its merchant-based, debit-card network. However, despite having built a significant merchant base that includes some of the nation’s largest retail chains, the market’s reaction so far has been less than enthusiastic. To many, it seems to demonstrate that merchants really aren’t so much looking to save on card fees in general, but rather to save on MasterCard and Visa fees specifically.

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Armed with support from HSBC, the new financing, and patented debit system, Debitman may finally have achieved a breakthrough. HSBC, one of the world’s largest issuers, has consistently proven its willingness to innovate in payments. While it may just be hedging its credit card bets, gaining access to HSBC’s customer base is an enormous win for Debitman, and it could form a base for real market penetration.

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It’s unlikely HSBC North America and its innovating chairman, Bobby Metha, were just acting on a casual whim when hooking up with Debitman. The bank must sense an opportunity. Metha, after all, came to HSBC after a long career at Boston Consulting, and he knows how to think for himself.

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It’s likely that Metha put his finger into the wind and felt it moving against credit cards. And not so much because of lawsuits fermenting in Judge Gleeson’s courtroom in Brooklyn, but because consumer behavior is changing. In the U.K., debit-card spending outstripped cash spending last year. Similarly, in the United States, credit card balances are falling as consumers pay down or convert credit card debt to equity-secured balances.