(Editor’s note: This is Part II of a two-part article. Part I appeared Thursday.) Interchange fees paid by merchants are the credit card industry’s second-largest revenue source. For debit cards and neobanks, these fees are a primary revenue source. The 2010 Dodd-Frank Act imposed price controls on debit interchange fees …
Read More »AmEx’s Encouraging Results and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 4/19/24
American Express Co. reported first-quarter 2024 revenue of $15.8 billion, up 11% from the same period last year, and billed business of $367 billion, up 6%. Net income grew 34% to $2.44 billion. Affinipay, a payments platform specializing in the legal and accounting professions, said it has expanded its LawPay and …
Read More »In an Abbreviated Call, Discover Sticks to the Numbers And Stays Mum About Cap One
Executives at Discover Financial Services Inc. early Thursday cut short their first-quarter 2024 earnings call, saying in advance they would not take questions after the presentation. Instead, equity analysts listening to the presentation were told to direct questions to Discover’s investor-relations team. On the call, executives duly reported a significant …
Read More »COMMENTARY: Don’t Take It Any More! It’s Time for the Payments Industry to Fight Back (Part I)
The Cato Institute’s Nicholas Anthony warned recently that the Biden Administration is waging “a war on (payments-industry) prices.” The payments industry provides services funded by a range of fees paid by consumers and businesses. Demagogic regulators and politicians pillory industry fees as exploitative, as “junk fees,” and “a tax.” These …
Read More »PAX’s Network Tech and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 4/18/24
Point-of-sale technology provider PAX Technology Inc. introduced Airlink, networking technology that provides payment connectivity in outdoor settings and other venues where wireless Internet or other network service may be unavailable or insufficient. Mastercard Inc. introduced what it calls a mobile virtual card app, which is aimed at financial institutions and supports the loading …
Read More »Klarna Gets Set to Launch a New U.S. Credit Card ‘Over the Next Few Months’
The buy now, pay later specialist Klarna AB signaled its intention Wednesday to issue a new credit card in the U.S. market. The company said it has opened a waitlist for the product, which it calls a “new and improved Klarna Card.” The new Visa card, which does not offer …
Read More »Mastercard’s Real-Time Canada Move and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 4/15/24
Mastercard Inc. said it is working with payments-technology platform VoPay to offer what the partners say will be near-real-time money-movement service in Canada. The service relies on Mastercard Move, a set of funds-transfer options. The Merchants Payment Coalition, which advocates for passage of the Credit Card Competition Act, cited the recent profits …
Read More »A Card Industry Group Cites Retailers’ Price Boosts And Surcharges in Its Latest Campaign to Stop the CCCA
A trade group representing card networks and issuers is taking aim at restaurant surcharges and price increases by large grocers as part of its efforts to defeat the Credit Card Competition Act. The Electronic Payments Coalition’s first salvo in its new campaign against the CCCA was fired last week. In …
Read More »Consumer Fraud Recovery Costs Rocket 70% in One Year
Rising costs aren’t just happening in grocery stores. They have caught up to fraud-recovery costs when consumers work to untangle the mess caused by identity theft and scams. The average out-of-pocket expense for a consumer in that situation ballooned 70% from $119 in 2022 to $202 in 2023, according to …
Read More »Airwallex’s Borderless Card and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 4/10/24
Airwallex launched in Canada what it calls its Borderless Visa Card, a virtual card Canadian business travelers can use for payments where Visa is accepted globally. Peoples Trust Co. is the issuer. Payments provider Talus Pay announced it is rebranding as simply Talus, while its recently acquired Jobox.ai unit will take on the …
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