When we are devoting an entire issue to the laws and regulations impacting campus card programs, it may seem odd for the editorial to question if it’s even worth worrying about … but is it? The industry has been batting many of these issues around for more than a decade.

Are we violating privacy as set forth in the Buckley Amendment? Will our programs be squashed for violating Reg E? Are we competing unfairly with local business by restricting where our cards can be used?

The list goes on and on–and often it seems the same old debate goes on and on with it. Since I first began covering these regulations back in 1995, I have had my cursory annual calls with the Department of Education, the Federal Reserve Board, and several other regulatory bodies. I have attended hearings in Washington when “major revisions” were being considered to one of these issues. But as I prepared with our editorial team to put together this month’s issue, I was again struck with just how little has changed.

Secretly I hoped to find that someone had been incarcerated (or at least sent to his room) for violating some crucial new reg. But it would seem that not even a hand has been slapped in recent years–begging the question: Why worry about these rules at all?

As you read the collection of regulatory articles that follow remember this and the answer may become clear. Without exception, these laws were put in place to protect the freedom, privacy, and security of the little guy from abuse by the bigger guy. And while this may sometimes make your job a bit more cumbersome or add red tape to a process, that is what we as Americans believe in and what we write laws to maintain.

Chris Corum
Editor
[email protected]

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