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Central New York banks may soon begin offering Discover and American Express-branded debit cards for the first time.

The U.S. Supreme Court last month said Visa and MasterCard engaged in anticompetitive practices in the late 1990s, when they blocked other companies, such as Discover, from working with financial institutions in branding bankissued debit cards.

But it's an open question as to whether banks will tamper with the lucrative debitcard agreements they have with Visa and MasterCard, which are credit-card associations owned by their member banks.

"It's a complex question," says Gary Cavano of KeyBank's corporate-news mediarelations office. "It's just too early for us to say" what effect the Supreme Court's ruling will have, especially since Discover and American Express are in litigation with Visa, MasterCard, and several major banks over the debit-card issue. Visa and MasterCard have thousands of bank members.

Over the past decade, debit-card use has grown from accounting for 274 million transactions in 1990 to 8.15 billion transactions in 2002, surpassing credit cards as the preferred payment card in the United States, according to Williamstown, Mass.-based research firm, MindBranch.

The debit-card industry is a multi-billion-dollar engine that helps drive bank profits and point-of-purchase consumer sales, but it is also beginning to redefine traditional payment options, such as food stamps, benefits, and payroll, in the business and government sectors, Mind Branch says.

Discover recently got in on the debitcard action through its $311 million acquisition of debit-card network PULSE. In exchange, Discover gets access to PULSE and its 4,100 member banks, credit unions, and savings institutions.

PULSE will become a business unit of Discover Financial Services, says Beth Metzler, a Discover spokeswoman. When the deal is finalized within two months, member banks will be able to issue Discover debit cards.

"The Supreme Court ruling was a victory for consumers and financial institutions, and it gives us the opportunity to work with financial institutes and banks so they can issue Discover cards, whether it's a debit card or credit card," Metzler says.

"It opened doors for us," she says. "Let's say if one of the banks, for example, let's say it's a Citibank, wishes to issue a Discover card on our network, or ATM cards or debit cards, then they'll be able to."

In the past, Discover didn't have that option, and banks, instead, issued either Visa or MasterCard debit cards.

PULSE is one of the nation's fastest growing ATM/debit networks, currently serving more than 4,100 banks, credit unions, and savings institutions across the country. The network links an estimated 90 million cardholders with more than 250,000 ATMs and 3.3 million terminals at retail locations nationwide.