Industry opinions are mixed regarding a move by banking trade groups to plead for more time to act on a ruling issued in October by the Federal Reserve. The ruling orders all banks to comply by July 1 with an 11-year-old requirement that merchants have a choice of at least …

A bill designed to allow merchants to have a choice of networks for routing credit card transactions failed to pass last year, but now international tensions could affect the proposed law’s prospects in the new Congress. The bill, called the Credit Card Competition Act, would mandate that merchants have a …

History has shown the two global card networks will never introduce real competition on their own. Time for regulators to intervene. The Fed and the FTC have made a start. The recent clarification by the Federal Reserve confirming that a more than 10-year-old law applies to online debit cards—coupled with …

The Federal Trade Commission announced two days before Christmas it had leveled a preliminary consent order against Mastercard Inc. The order—issued to correct what the agency saw as roadblocks the card company had erected against routing online debit transactions to competing networks—may have surprised at least some observers. That’s because …

When the Federal Trade Commission announced two days before Christmas it had leveled a preliminary consent order against Mastercard Inc. to correct what the agency saw as roadblocks the card company had erected against routing online debit transactions to competing networks, the move may have surprised at least some observers. …

Will Durbin II rise again, bringing joy to merchants but grief to credit card issuers? Potentially, more than $10 billion could be in play if routing choice becomes law. Credit card issuers dodged a bullet in late 2022 with the failure of the Credit Card Competition Act to pass the …

U.S. retail sales in the Nov. 1 to Dec. 24 period, excluding automotive, grew 7.6% compared to the same time in 2021, according to Mastercard Inc.’s SpendingPulse, which tracks in-store and online sales. E-commerce sales alone were up 10.6%. The calculation took account of all forms of payment but was not …

It was only a matter of time before the two big international card networks responded to a recent Federal Reserve requirement that issuers make at least two unrelated networks available to merchants for debit card transactions. That time arrived at earnings season. During an earnings call with equity analysts in …

The real winners from the Fed’s latest debit card routing rule aren’t the merchants. And they certainly aren’t the banks. Guess who? In the last decade, the flow of funds across debit card networks has curiously become a concern of Congress and the Federal Reserve.  It all began with the …

Acquirers are trying to disentangle the many implications of the proposed Credit Card Competition Act. Some doubt the bill’s impact would be good. This road has been traveled before. This time, U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) wants to place restrictions on credit card practices, specifically transaction-routing practices. As Digital Transactions …