Setting up a new scheme: Learning from CUP

Traversing down the roadmap of bringing a payments scheme to life is interesting.  Once a scheme is launched, most of us think that all the features of the scheme come to life in relatively short order.  As an entire industry is affected by a new scheme coming to life, getting a good feel for timeline is critical to success of many products/ventures that are dependent on the scheme of the land.

Features of a typical scheme include:

• Domestic
• ATM
• Retail (Debit, Credit)
• Online
• Other payment networks (Postal system, Rural, Cooperatives...)
• Connectivity / bilateral agreements with other schemes (primarily 'international'), primarily around card acceptance
• Connectivity / bilateral agreements with international banks (primarily 'international') primarily around card acceptance

While launch of new schemes are not commonplace, China UnionPay (CUP) is a recent addition  The journey to setup a scheme is hard work and takes years, this post will look at some of the milestones once a scheme has been 'launched' (source)

• 1993: Creation of CUP started as part of the Golden Card Project
• 2002: Launch of scheme
• 2003: Issue of new cards
• 2004: CUP cards accepted in Hong Kong
• 2005: CUP cards accepted by ATM/POS offered by Citicorp network
• 2006: CUP cards accepted in Australia
• 2007: Multi-factor authentication for online payments

 While the world is getting smaller, and technology becoming more of a commodity, the above timeline might still be representative of a new payment scheme roadmap.

Do you see the trend for new payment schemes coming up?  Do you see a different timeline?  Appreciate your comments.