With each passing day, the proposed settlement of the giant antitrust suit over credit card interchange and card network rules appears to unravel even more as big-box merchants increasingly express dissatisfaction with the $7-billion-plus deal. The latest is Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which issued a statement on Tuesday opposing the agreement …

More evidence of widespread merchant antipathy to the credit card interchange settlement announced July 13 emerged late Friday when big-box retailer Target Corp. came out against the plan. Industry observers expect more opposition from merchants to emerge, casting doubt on the settlement’s future. But a lobbying group for payment card …

No sooner had the ink dried on a proposed settlement of a massive credit card suit than cracks began to appear in what had been an edifice of merchant solidarity. The NACS, a national trade group for convenience-store operators, on Friday said its board of directors had unanimously rejected the …

Worried about getting too far in debt and nearly oblivious to the ongoing debate in the banking and payments industries about the controversial Durbin Amendment, consumers in June continued to display their allegiance to debit cards, according to new figures from First Data Corp. The nation’s leading payment card processor …

With a trial date looming in September, speculation is rising that a major antitrust case challenging credit card interchange will result in new rules handing merchants wider latitude in surcharging for transactions, routing payments, and steering customers to other cards or forms of payment. Settlement talks in the case, known …

Person-to-person payments continue to improve technologically and attract consumers, but providers still haven’t figured out how to make money from them, according to new findings from First Annapolis Consulting Inc. Linthicum, Md.-based First Annapolis in the second quarter tested a dozen P2P services from large banks and processors down to …

Google Inc.’s disclosure last week that 1 million Android-powered devices are now shipping each week with near-field communication (NFC) capability has renewed industry speculation about when NFC-based mobile payments will become a mainstream service. The shipment figure, a rare disclosure from the tightlipped Web search giant, came with weekly activation …

National Payment Card Association is out to prove the obituaries for decoupled debit were, as the saying goes, exaggerated. Not only does the company have 4,000 gas stations accepting its PIN-based debit cards, it expects a major petroleum vendor will begin accepting debit transactions through its platform on a mobile …

American Express Co. announced what it calls its “roadmap” for EMV and chip-based and mobile payments in the U.S., which means all four of the major U.S.-based payment card networks are now on record with plans to move beyond the magnetic-stripe payment card. Like the ones from MasterCard Inc. and …

Regular readers of these ramblings will have noted in them a skeptical stance toward government meddling in the affairs of private actors, such as merchants, issuers, and processors. We have dissected, more often perhaps than necessary, the regrettable urge to control interchange pricing that has so far found its most …