What a punch of popularity chasers

Why blame politicians for the sins committed by banks and solution providers in designing systems with so much friction that many of their ePayment products are rejected by mainstream banking customers? Not just in the UK, the recent decision by INGDirect USA makes this point eloquently: Although its customers have chosen to bank with a direct bank that has no branches, they clearly want the convenience of making payments by paper checks instead of jumping several hoops to put through an electronic payment.

Amazon didn't cause a BORDERS moment by getting bookstores banned. Nor did iPhone disrupt the mobile phone market by lobbying with some industry assocation to turn against the BlackBerries or Nokias of the world. Similarly, ePayment providers need to realize that they can change the status quo only through the strengths of their products and UX and not via an artificially-guaranteed cheque-less market.

Ironically, the recent decision to continue with cheques in the UK might actually boost ePayments: Finally, banks and solution providers might start designing products and devising go to market strategies in such a way that customers voluntarily choose ePayments over cheques.