The Merchants Payments Coalition announced it will host a briefing for members of Congress, their staffs and the press from noon to 1 p.m. Monday, Nov. 17, in room 562 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

The association is a group of retailers, supermarkets, drug stores, convenience stores, fuel stations, online merchants and other businesses whose stated goal is to fight what they believe are unfair credit card fees and want a more competitive and transparent card system that works better for consumers and merchants alike. The coalition's member associations collectively represent about 2.7 million stores with approximately 50 million employees.

A panel of experts moderated by Steptoe & Johnson Partner Douglas Kantor will help attendees understand the past and prepare for the future of new mobile payment technologies. The panelists are:

• Kate Jaspon, vice president, finance and treasury, Dunkin’ Brands Inc., parent company of Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins ice cream
• Kenneth Douglas, senior vice president at payments company SEQR
• Gideon Samid, chief technology officer of BitMint LLC, a digital-money company, and a professor at the University of Maryland

Among the topics they’ll discuss: the latest mobile payments technologies; how those technologies work; the safety and convenience of mobile payment systems; and what we can learn from experiences in other countries.