Pricing

• The ATM Industry Association issued an updated position paper in support of variable surcharges, or so-called “convenience fees,” for ATM transactions; the trade group says global network policies effectively force ATM deployers to assess uniform surcharges despite differences in network interchange rates and fees, and that the coming of …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews In new court filings, Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. are denying the antitrust allegations that The Home Depot Inc. leveled against them in a June lawsuit. That’s no surprise, but the networks’ responses leave some arcane network fees shrouded in mystery. Visa and MasterCard filed answers to …

It’s back-to-school time, and that means it’s also time for college-age students and their parents to pay tuition charges. Most of the largest private, public, and community colleges accept credit cards for these charges, but a growing majority of these institutions also assess hefty so-called convenience fees to cardholders, according …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews When it comes to faster payments, most of the U.S. payments industry’s focus lately has been on the glamorous option of real-time settlement, but sentiment is beginning to emerge that says same-day payments may just be fast enough. Those who make that argument point out that …

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews The debate over the price merchants pay to accept credit cards may be about to intensify. A new report suggests that capping credit card interchange at 22 cents plus 30.5 basis points per transaction could cut $15 billion from the current total of $33 billion U.S. merchants …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews Visa Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. say there is no news in their standoff that began July 18 with Wal-Mart kicking Visa out of its three stores in Thunder Bay, Ontario. But Visa over the past several weeks has run a marketing campaign to remind residents of …

• A status conference in the massive credit card interchange case known as MDL 1720 is set for Thursday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, N.Y., in the wake of the $5.7 billion settlement in the case being overturned by an appellate court June 30. The case is returning to …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews Partly because of a big increase in skimming, debit card fraud rates jumped in 2015 on both signature and PIN-based point-of-sale transactions, according to the 2016 Debit Issuer Study commissioned by Discover Financial Services’ Pulse electronic funds transfer network. The overall fraud-loss rate on PIN POS transactions …

• American Express Co. reported $2 billion in net income for the second quarter, including a $1.1 billion pre-tax gain from the sale of its Costco Wholesale Corp. cobranded portfolio to Citigroup Inc., which is now issuing a cobranded Costco Visa credit card. AmEx’s U.S. card-billed business grew 2% year …

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s Canadian unit on Monday stopped accepting Visa cards at its three stores in Thunder Bay, Ontario, carrying out the threat the retailer issued last month in its dispute with Visa Inc. over card-acceptance costs. A spokesperson at Wal-Mart’s Canadian headquarters in Mississauga, Ontario, as well as a …