Pricing

Banks are likely to continue testing debit card usage fees in the wake of the Federal Reserve’s new price controls on debit interchange, though such fees are generating heated debate about whether they make good business sense. “Disincenting consumers to use debit cards I just think is a terrible strategy …

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  Merchant acquirers once relied on independent agents, direct sales, and agent bank relationships to sign up merchants. Now, a new group has entered the picture and is accounting for a rapidly increasing share of new merchant accounts. Value-added resellers and independent software vendors will enroll 15% of all new …

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As Visa Inc. moves into the post Durbin-era, the debit card market leader plans to offer a fixed network participation fee and reduce its variable processing fee for Visa debit products in the United States. Executives expect the new fee structure will make Visa a more viable alternative to competing …

  Reloadable general-purpose prepaid cards, once thought to be largely exempt from the debit card interchange restrictions of the Durbin Amendment, will be covered by that law in more cases now that the Federal Reserve has issued its final rule interpreting the amendment. Some experts see the new rule crimping …

Now that the Federal Reserve’s new debit card interchange regulations are finally out in the open, the profile of yet another payment card interchange and rules controversy is slowly rising. That’s the raft of merchant antitrust lawsuits pending in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, N.Y., collectively known as “MDL 1720.” …

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  n The 5 basis points added by the Fed to the 21-cent cap is intended to capture some of the fraud losses issuers sustain, the central bank said in a staff memo released on Wednesday summarizing the final rule. The final rule also allows, on an interim basis, a …