Credit Cards

Consumer spending in the United States, in terms of February retail sales excluding auto, was up 8.7% over February 2021 and 17.3% over February 2019, according to Mastercard Inc.’s SpendingPulse report, which monitors in-store and online retail sales.President Joe Biden signed an executive order requiring federal agencies to work out a common …

Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. will raise interchange rates for online merchants starting next month, while also lowering the rates for some small-merchant categories, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Mastercard’s fee changes alone will result in a net increase of about $330 million yearly, according to the Journal story, …

As Russian armed forces continue their assault on Ukraine, Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc., and American Express Co. late Saturday said they are suspending all operations in Russia, following up on actions taken by the networks nearly a week earlier. Meanwhile, reports began to filter out of Russia that at least some …

The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC said transaction volume on EPN, its automated clearing house network, increased 9.6% in 2021. The Clearing House and the Federal Reserve, the only ACH operators in the United States, each handle approximately half the commercial ACH market, TCH said.Buy now, pay later provider Sezzle Inc. said Yapstone …

Visa Inc. will decrease interchange rates by 10% for small businesses accepting consumer credit cards in April, according to a Reuters report. The reduced rates will apply to online and card-present transactions and only to merchants with $250,000 or less in Visa consumer credit volumes, Reuters attributed its information to an …

Despite the economy reopening after the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, e-commerce continues to boom as consumers embrace shopping online from home or via their mobile device.  A recent study from FIS Inc. reveals that e-commerce transaction values in the United States grew 10% in 2021 compared to 2020, …

The actions taken by the SWIFT payments-messaging network and by Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine will have an impact, but a muted one, observers say.  The 49-year-old SWIFT system, which on Saturday said it is banning Russian banks, has not barred all …

Volante Technologies Inc., a cloud payments and financial messaging provider, said it will offer U.S. financial institutions a unified real-time payments service that offers access to The Clearing House’s RTP network and the upcoming FedNow service, which is expected to launch in 2023. Volante has been in the FedNow pilot program since 2021.Facepay …

Australian fintech Zip Co Ltd. is poised to expand its buy now, pay later services through a definitive agreement to acquire Sezzle Inc. in an all-stock deal that values Sezzle at $355.5 million, or 491 million in Australian dollars (AUS). The deal is expected to significantly expand Zip’s presence in the …

The Sweden-based buy now, pay later provider Klarna AB on Friday announced a major move in its increasingly crucial U.S. market with the news that it will provide its payment service to Brookfield Properties, a real-estate developer with more than 150 shopping centers. The agreement, which makes Klarna the exclusive …