First of all, thanks for reading my article on Adotas – and for writing your comments above. You raise some very interesting points, many of which I agree with. Many networks right now do act as network managers already, lending credence to where you think things will go more and more in the future. For instance, if a network themselves cannot fulfill the merchants’ requests or needs (as you illustrate above), they likely will turn to other networks to fulfill them (better that option from a network’s standpoint than in having the merchant work directly with the other network). In short, you are correct in stating that there are middle men who manage middle men who manage middle men even to some extent now, and if the number of networks doesn’t drastically decrease (as I predicted it wouldn’t anytime soon), then you’ll see this more and more to your point. There will come a time when there will be a handful of “power” networks that do not need to turn elsewhere to fulfill a merchant’s needs, because they will have many more capabilities (built or bought) in-house – but the industry isn’t there yet by and large, except for a few companies that do offer a wide range of competencies.
Mike