Merchants have been granted a 90-day extension to file a monetary claim as part of the settlement of a nearly two-decades-old interchange lawsuit filed against Visa and Mastercard. Merchants now have until Aug. 30 to file their claims, the court overseeing the settlement has ruled. A settlement between Visa and …
Read More »COMMENTARY: Why Merchants Should Embrace Network Tokenization
If you know anything about the payment space these days, you know that the natives are restless. Merchants have been fed up with interchange rates for years, with no shortage of lawsuits to voice their complaints. Even after winning the right to pass on interchange costs to the consumer, merchants …
Read More »A Bill That Would Cut the Number of Banks Covered by Durbin Advances Out of Committee
A bill containing a provision that would raise the asset threshold for debit card issuers covered by the Durbin Amendment narrowly passed in a vote late Thursday by the House Financial Services Committee. The committee voted 24-22 in favor of advancing the bill, called the Bank Resilience and Regulatory Improvement …
Read More »Merchants And Banks Prepare for Battle Over the Fed’s Proposed Debit Adjustments
The National Retail Federation and the Merchants Payments Coalition have lined up against the Federal Reserve, arguing that while a rate reduction on debit card transactions is welcome, the Fed’s proposed pricing does not go far enough. The two industry trade groups sent their respective letters to the Fed on …
Read More »Shrugging off Volatility, Crypto Enthusiasts Hike First Quarter Spending by 20%
When cryptocurrency prices rise, spending may dip, but only for a short time before users accelerate their purchases with Bitcoin and other digital coins, according to a report released Thursday by BitPay Inc., an Atlanta-based payments-service provider for crypto users and crypto-accepting merchants. The ”2024 BitPay Spending Report,” which covers …
Read More »Chase Adds a Pay-Per-Use Real-Time Payments Option for SMBs
Chase, the banking arm of giant JPMorgan Chase & Co., introduced a suite of digital products it says will help small businesses improve their cash flow and payment processing. Among the services are the ability to choose a payment speed, such as standard automated clearing house, same-day ACH, or real-time …
Read More »Potential Merchant Savings on Swipe Fees Is the Latest Payments Battleground
The war over the proposed Credit Card Competition Act shows no signs of abating as combatants on both sides of the fence continue their efforts to sway legislators and public opinion on the matter of card-acceptance costs. The latest battle centers on data from payments consultancy CMSPI that says merchants …
Read More »QuickCharge And Just Walk Out Tech and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 4/25/24
Quickcharge, a division of Transact Campus Inc., completed an integration of Amazon.com Inc.’s Just Walk Technology at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa that enables employees to use their badges to pay for food and beverages. Payments processor Elavon said it is expanding a partnership in Europe with commerce-technology platform FreedomPay to include …
Read More »COMMENTARY: Don’t Take It Any More! It’s Time for the Payments Industry to Fight Back (Part II)
(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 »Restaurant Price Strategies Come Under Fire As Advocates Push to Pass a Credit Card Bill
As restaurants turn to surcharging and dynamic pricing to offset rising operating costs, consumer backlash is raising concerns the practice could negatively affect customer loyalty and ultimately, restaurant profits. The backlash comes hard on the heels of the Electronic Payments Coalition’s attacks on restaurant surcharges and other price increases. The …
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