STAR (debit network)

STAR began as a regional ATM network and spent the 1990s absorbing other local networks until it covered most of the country. Concord EFS bought it in 2001. When First Data acquired Concord in 2004, US antitrust regulators made First Data sell its stake in the rival NYCE network, and in 2019 Fiserv bought First Data in turn.

Few outsiders have heard of STAR, since its logo sits quietly on the back of the card. Billions of transactions a year still run through it. It lives off the Durbin Amendment, which requires every US debit card to be routable over at least two unaffiliated networks: STAR, NYCE, Pulse and Accel are what that second option usually means.