Credit Cards

The United Kingdom's Office of Fair Trading today said interchange fees paid by Visa acquirers to Visa issuers in the U.K. are anti-competitive, an action that could lead to regulatory action against the fee structure. In what it calls a “statement of objections,” the OFT said Visa's interchange structure, formally …

PayPal Inc. will use the transaction gateway it is buying from VeriSign Inc. for $370 million to thrust itself even more deeply into the business of acquiring transactions for small off-eBay Internet merchants, a senior executive for the transaction-processing unit of eBay Inc. tells Digital Transactions News. PayPal, which this …

More than two-thirds of treasury professionals within businesses that sell to consumers favor capping card interchange fees, according to a survey released today by the Association for Financial Professionals. Moreover, nearly three-quarters of these executives would trade rewards programs for lower interchange rates, even if their own companies lost incentives. …

An Internet payments processor founded early this year is looking to tap into underserved niche markets like schools, service companies, and other small businesses with what it bills as an inexpensive and easy-to-use application. My Payment Network Inc., Corte Madera, Calif., just began operation in August but hopes to be …

The ranks of major retailers suing the bank card networks over interchange swelled by one today when Publix Super Markets Inc. announced it had filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against Visa USA and MasterCard International. The Lakeland, Fla.-based grocery chain's suit alleges the practice of setting interchange by the two …

The legal battle over the bank card associations' interchange pricing arrangements, already red-hot, got even hotter today when four retail trade associations slapped Visa U.S.A., MasterCard International, and several major banks with a class-action antitrust suit. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New …

Metris Cos. Inc. announced today it will begin issuing cards on Discover Financial Services LLC.'s acceptance network by the end of the year. Metris, the nation's 11th-largest issuer of bank cards, said it will issue a new credit card under the Discover banner through its Direct Merchants Credit Card Bank …

GreenZap Inc., a San Diego, Calif.-based processor of e-mail payments that started up this summer as the latest competitor to PayPal Inc., has added acceptance of Visa and MasterCard cards to fund accounts, a move the company says will help it to more than double transaction volume. “The integration of …

MasterCard International said today it will appeal a decision from the U.K.'s Office of Fair Trading that concluded the bank card network's method of setting interchange was anti-competitive. Meanwhile, a trade group representing British merchants said it was disappointed in the OFT ruling and may also appeal. The U.K. regulator …

With online merchants in the U.S. increasingly seeking business overseas, TransFirst Inc. is adopting automated currency-conversion technology from E4X Inc. Dallas-based TransFirst, which processes card transactions for 160,000 merchants?including an increasing number of card-not-present merchants?will offer automated currency conversion to its clients as part of its processing service. E4X says …