Federal Reserve Board chairman Jerome Powell is testifying before Congress this week, and mixed in with questions and answers about interest rates, economic growth, and employment could be queries about when the Fed is going to update its cap on the fees issuers can charge for debit card transactions. At …
Read More »RILA Urges Lower Durbin Debit Cap and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 2/11/20
The Retail Industry Leaders Association issued a statement calling on Congress to press Federal Reserve Board chairman Jerome Powell to “set a true rate” for debit card transactions that would reflect the intent of the Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank Act. The amendment regulates debit card transaction pricing for large issuers. Powell is scheduled …
Read More »Surcharging Is Poised to Gain Momentum As State Bans Fall And Acquirers Spot Opportunities
Surcharges on credit card transactions could pick up momentum now that only four states effectively ban the practice, a panel of experts indicated Wednesday at a merchant-acquiring trade show. That momentum may benefit not only merchants wary of card-acceptance costs but also merchant-service providers that focus on surcharging as a …
Read More »A Hospitality POS Software Developer Becomes an ISO
The hotly competitive arena of integrated payments has prompted PointOS, a hospitality software developer, to register as an independent sales organization to gain better control over payment services it offers. The company, which serves customers, announced its ISO registration this week and calls its service PointOS Payments. “We became an …
Read More »Debit Routing Uncertainty Down Under and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 2/5/20
Australian financial regulators might intervene to stop banks from automatically routing contactless debit card payments to the Visa and Mastercard networks and instead give merchants the option of using the country’s EFTPOS network, Reuters reported.RevSpring Financial Services, a provider of collections-support services for health-care firms and other companies, debuted eVokePay, a payment …
Read More »Report: Changes in Visa’s Interchange Rate Schedule Coming This Year
Visa Inc. reportedly is planning interchange rate changes that could raise merchants’ acceptance costs for card-not-present transactions but lower costs in some other categories, including purchases at big grocery-store chains. Citing a Visa document circulating among the network’s client banks, the Bloomberg news service reported Tuesday that interchange for a …
Read More »A Service Emerges to Let Online Users Gain Fast Access to Limited Content Via Digital Wallets
Digital solutions for very small payments were a hot topic a decade ago, but now the subject is making a comeback in the publishing business, where a slide in print advertising and other revenue sources is pushing publishers to seek new business in digital access. This week, Piano Software Inc., …
Read More »Eye on Earnings: Wall Street Rewards AmEx But Punishes Discover After Seeing Fourth-Quarter Results
Two bellwether payments stocks headed in opposite directions Friday morning as they reported financial results for the fourth quarter. Discover Financial Services saw its share price swoon 7.41% in pre-market trading. By mid-morning, it stood at $77.94, down 9% from its Thursday close. AmEx shares on the other hand had …
Read More »Consumers Make More On-Us ATM Cash Withdrawals, Fed Data Show
Despite the decades-old rise of electronic payments at the expense of cash, the rate of decrease in ATM cash withdrawals has slowed down, and more consumers are avoiding fees by using their own financial institution’s ATMs, according to the Federal Reserve. The Fed’s latest triennial payments study released last month …
Read More »Square Raises Its Price for Instant and Same-Day Transfers to 1.5%
In its latest pricing change, Square Inc. disclosed Tuesday that it will raise the cost of instant and same-day transfers from its merchants’ Square balances to their bank accounts to 1.5% per transfer from the previous rate of 1%. The change, announced on Square’s blog, took effect Tuesday for new …
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