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Industry Participants See Capital One’s "Portable Debit" as Potential Disruptive Technology

American Banker poll The current reader poll on American Banker's homepage (here) is seeking opinions on Capital One's new "decoupled" debit card. It's a new MasterCard debit card that can be attached to any checking account by processing transactions through the open ACH system. Cards can be used in PIN or signature mode. Capital One began issuing the new product to credit card customers in March and has signed a co-brand deal with an unknown grocery chain. 

Interestingly, of the 70% of respondents with an opinion (excluding the "too early to judge" category), more than half chose "Holds potential to disrupt status quo" (see chart above). The poll was first posted Friday morning (June 8) and runs for a week. Check here Friday for the final results. 

While it's certainly not a scientific sampling, and it's in the free zone so anyone can respond, the results tell me that the product has the attention of the banking community. Whether it catches on with consumers is another matter.  

For more information on Capital One's new product:

  • Aite Group 13-page report
  • Javelin's blog entries part 1, 2, and 3
  • Colin Henderson's Bankwatch post
  • American Banker's June 5 article