It was recently announced that earlier this month, Debitman Card, Inc. obtained a U.S. patent on a “method and system for executing electronic funds transactions using a merchant based debit (MBD) card in a merchant-centric system that provides for reduced fees to acquiring merchants and remitting a portion of the collected fees to issuing merchants.” U.S. Patent No. 7,104,443, entitled “Method and system for facilitating electronic funds transactions,” issued on September 12th and includes 29 system and method claims for facilitating and executing electronic funds transactions. The patent references transaction fees charged by banks issuing credit and debit cards and how those fees may impact business profitability, and states that “a need exists for a point of purchase card-based electronic payment system which provides conventional features to consumers while reducing merchant processing costs and increasing the ability of merchants to access consumer transaction information for use in their own special incentive programs.” This patent, according to the USPTO registered assignee database, is the first patent issued and assigned to Debitman.