Pricing

Merchants’ disdain for interchange is well documented, but one aspect of card-acceptance costs that gets drowned out by the outcry over interchange is that rising processing fees are hitting merchants harder than interchange hikes, according to some observers. Processors’ rate hikes have been running between 0.25% and 1.5% in recent …

Mastercard Inc.’s chief executive early Wednesday deplored the recent collapse of a key interchange settlement and highlighted the card company’s rapid progress in tokenization, a key technology that masks actual card data from potential cyberthieves. Pointing to a U.S. District Court judge’s rejection last month of an agreement between merchants and …

Value-added resellers and independent software vendors enticed by the attractiveness of surcharging and cash-discount programs find there’s no one-size-fits-all approach for enrolling merchants. Questions about the programs abound at RetailNow 2024, the annual conference sponsored by the Retail Solutions Providers Association and in progress this week in Las Vegas. The …

Growth in contactless and peer-to-peer payments, e-commerce, and value-added services were among the highlights discussed with stock analysts late Tuesday during Visa Inc.’s third-quarter earnings call for the card company’s fiscal year 2024. Visa’s Tap-to-Pay contactless payments technology has penetrated multiple markets, accounting for 80% of all face-to-face Visa transactions …

For the second consecutive quarterly earnings call, executives at Discover Financial Services had little to say about the company’s financial performance, plans going forward, or anything else. With a proposed $35.3-billion merger with Capital One Financial Corp. hanging over them, Discover executives again took no questions, and equity analysts were …

The Electronic Payments Coalition’s attack this week against the Credit Card Competition Act calls out retailers Target Corp. and Walmart as greedy mega-corporate stores that stand to profit at the expense of consumers should the legislation pass. The aggressive tone of the EPC’s “high six-figure” campaign, unleashed this week, signals …

FundKite, a fintech that provides financing to small and medium-size businesses, has broadened its services with the launch of a payment-processing division. The move will enable FundKite to expand its services beyond offering capital to merchants by providing them with a one-stop processing and financing shop, the company says. In …

Decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court are supposed to settle matters, but a verdict the high court delivered early Monday has the potential to stir up debit card pricing questions for some time to come, some observers say. The justices, in a 6-3 decision, ruled a case brought by a …

In 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt shut down financial institutions for a week, called a “bank holiday,” to restore calm after a run on banks. This comes to mind after a federal judge recently indicated she won’t approve a settlement between the major card brands and merchants over the fees that …

Data from eMarketer, a research firm, indicates mobile payments at the point of sale in the U.S. market will total $670.5 billion this year, up 21.4% from 2023, and will grow nearly 19% to reach $797 billion in 2025. Volume will cross the $1-trillion mark in 2027, the firm predicts. SmartMetric …