The political battle over the Credit Card Competition Act has heated up as the Small Business Payments Alliance (SBPA), a recently formed merchant trade group, has come out in opposition to the proposed legislation. The group argues that, if passed, the CCCA would harm small businesses. The SBPA, which held …

More than 10 years after Visa Inc. wrote its rules permitting surcharging on its credit cards, questions remain among acquirers, especially those selling or considering surcharge programs for their merchants. Now, as more merchants mull surcharge or cash-discount programs to alleviate some of their card-acceptance costs, and with recent changes …

Agents that sell card acceptance aren’t powerless when merchants gripe about the cost. Merchant discontent over card-acceptance fees is nothing new, but every few years the din rises several octaves, just as it has in 2023. While merchants, card issuers, the card networks, and politicians argue over whether acceptance costs …

We know you’re not looking for problems. But they are looking for you. Here’s our annual catalog of the ones causing the most headaches. If adversity breeds strength, as the old saying goes, then payments professionals may have plenty of opportunity to develop their strategic and tactical biceps. The industry …

The Federal Reserve Board’s proposal Wednesday to make a 31% reduction in the main component of its debit card interchange ceiling for large issuers touches on a longstanding sore point among merchants and has already sparked a spirited debate in the payments industry. Merchant groups, long riled by debit card …

J.P. Morgan Payments launched its pay-by-bank service, relying on open-banking technology from Mastercard Inc. The service lets customers pay bills directly from their bank accounts. Block Inc.’s Afterpay buy now, pay later platform announced a partnership with Nift Networks to offer users access to products and services offered by Nift. Point-of-sale system maker Revel …

The Federal Reserve Board of Governors will consider revisions to its cap on debit card swipe fees at its meeting next Wednesday. The announcement was made as part of a public notice about the upcoming board meeting. While no further details were provided about the Fed’s intentions, retailers made it …

Celero Commerce announced late Wednesday it has acquired Finical Holdings LLC for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition, which is the tenth Celero has made since its launch in late 2018, will increase the company’s annual card processing volume to $25 billion and enlarge its presence in the Southwestern U.S. market, …

An agreement between processor Fiserv Inc. and open-banking platform Plaid will allow consumers who use any of Fiserv’s 3,000 client banks to share financial information with third-party apps and services. Discover Financial Services’ Discover Global Network launched a cloud-based version of its stored payment tokens service. Tokens are digital replacements for actual card credentials. …

Paze, an online wallet still in development, will be available to merchants using GoDaddy Inc.’s Web services. Paze is available for testing to select U.S. businesses on the GoDaddy platform. In March, at the announcement of Paze, Early Warning Services LLC, its developer, said full availability would arrive this autumn, …