News

December, 2010

• 16 December

  Debit Interchange Would Get a 12-Cent Cap Under Fed Proposals

  Debit card interchange fees would take a draconian cut under two proposals that the Federal Reserve Board floated on Thursday. Both would set caps of 12 cents per transaction, caps that would take most of the profit out of many transactions, especially signature debit. The board also left open the …
• 15 December

  Canadian Regulators Challenge Visa-MasterCard Credit Card Acceptance Rules

  Giving the bank card networks a taste of the medicine they’re getting in the U.S., Canada’s Competition Bureau on Wednesday took action against Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. rules against surcharging and honor-all-cards requirements intended to prevent discrimination by Canadian merchants against credit cardholders. “Visa and MasterCard’s anti-competitive behavior hurts …
• 14 December

  Fed Could Cut Signature Debit Interchange up to 60%, Goldman Clients Say

  Financial-industry clients of Goldman Sachs & Co. are bracing for cuts of 40% to 60% in signature debit card interchange rates when the Federal Reserve Board releases its draft regulations for the controversial fee, possibly as soon as Thursday. Many of the investment-banking firm’s clients also expect the Fed to …
• 14 December

  Eye on Mobile: A Google Deal Comes to Light; A Visa Offers App

  Google Inc. continues to cement its early grip on mobile payments, as indicated by the disclosure on Monday that the online search giant has acquired a small company in Toronto whose technology purports to enable payments, promotions, and advertising over mobile phones. News of the deal follows in the wake …
• 9 December

  Cardlytics Looks to Mobile to Expand Reach of Card-Linked Rewards

  Companies are starting to bet that consumer interest in electronically delivered offers and rewards is spilling into the mobile channel. In the most recent example of this trend, Cardlytics, an Atlanta-based firm whose technology lets consumers redeem rewards by using a bank-issued payment card, this week announced a tie-in with …
• 8 December

  Debit Cards Boom While Checks Slump, Fed Study Shows

  While the electronic-payments industry waits for the Federal Reserve to come up with new debit card regulations, the Fed on Wednesday released results from its massive, triennial study of U.S. payments. The numbers show a dramatic rise in debit card transactions, coupled with an equally steep decline in check usage. …
• 8 December

  Regulators Accept Visa Europe’s Promise of Big Debit Interchange Cuts

  Ominous or joyous interchange news, depending on your perspective, just rolled in from Europe. The European Commission, the antitrust authority in European Union nations, on Dec. 8 accepted Visa Europe’s proposal to reduce debit card interchange by up to 60% in nine countries. The EC’s action, while having no legal …
• 8 December

  WikiLeaks’ Defenders Go on the Attack Against Payment Firms

  Supporters of WikiLeaks attacked the Visa and MasterCard Web sites on Wednesday after the bank card networks cut off donation transactions to the controversial online anti-secrecy organization that recently disclosed hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. State Department cables. The attacks, which slowed down the networks’ Web sites or made …
• 7 December

  Google’s NFC Phone: A Good Start, But Lots of Issues Remain

  As with other recent moves toward contactless payments via mobile phones, Google Inc.’s introduction of a smart phone equipped with near-field communication (NFC) technology comes shrouded with question marks, say mobile-payments players. Google’s move, which it announced on Monday in conjunction with the rollout of a new, NFC-supporting version of …
• 6 December

  Separating Dodd-Frank’s Winners from Its Losers

  The turbulent regulatory and legal atmosphere enveloping the U.S. payment card industry is blowing the industry into camps of winners, losers, and those in between. The biggest losers: Visa and MasterCard, large debit card issuers, and consumers. Winners: merchant-funded rewards networks and big merchants. Also likely to gain in the …