The Electronic Payments Coalition issued a press release late Tuesday taking issue with a New York Times op-ed video that argues merchants and consumers already pay a high price for rewards cards and expresses support for the Credit Card Competition Act. In its rebuttal responding to the video, Richard Hunt, …

The Federal Reserve Board’s proposal Wednesday to make a 31% reduction in the main component of its debit card interchange ceiling for large issuers touches on a longstanding sore point among merchants and has already sparked a spirited debate in the payments industry. Merchant groups, long riled by debit card …

The Federal Reserve Board of Governors will consider revisions to its cap on debit card swipe fees at its meeting next Wednesday. The announcement was made as part of a public notice about the upcoming board meeting. While no further details were provided about the Fed’s intentions, retailers made it …

Credit card interchange has come under assault, and not for the first time. Now, though, the stakes are higher than ever. The cleverly crafted “Credit Card Competition Act of 2023” from Sens. Durbin, Marshall, Welch, and Vance is the latest salvo in a forever war against payments-industry fees, including how …

The federal court overseeing a $5.54-billion settlement between millions of card-accepting merchants, on one hand, and Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc., on the other, over interchange costs recently took several steps that ultimately could get payments out to merchants. But checks still won’t be in the mail for some time. …

The Credit Card Competition Act is back in play. But as Congress debates the bill, a pressing question looms about its biggest requirement: Who are the Visa and Mastercard alternatives supposed to be? Senator Richard Durbin is back at it. After failing to advance the Credit Card Competition Act out …

The U.S. Payments Forum has published a free white paper, “Regulation II Clarification for Debit Routing,” on the Federal Reserve’s announcement earlier this year that effective July 1 issuers must support network choice on card-not-present transactions, in addition to card-present, in accordance with the 2010 Durbin Amendment. Payment-card manufacturer CPI Card Group Inc. has …

Debit card networks are gearing up for an expected flood of new online transactions in the wake of a Federal Reserve rule clarification that took effect more than a month ago to require that issuers enable network choice for online as well as in-person transactions. The latest example emerged late …

As FIS Inc. prepares to dispose of a majority interest in its merchant-acquiring unit, the big processor confronts other key questions regarding potentially favorable developments in the payments business. Still, its top brass proved reluctant early Wednesday to discuss those questions, one of which touched on opportunities the proposed Credit …

Visa Inc.’s top brass, during the company’s quarterly earnings conference call Tuesday afternoon, preferred to talk about fast-growing newer lines of business such as value-added services and transaction sources apart from traditional plastic credit and debit cards. But stock analysts on the call had questions about some sensitive merchant-relations issues, …