Recent meetings between Federal Reserve staff members, consumer groups, and payments executives show just how divergent the views are as the Fed prepares the first-ever regulations on U.S. payment card interchange. Consumer groups are pushing for “at-par” debit card interchange—essentially, no interchange. A big regional bank, however, said the Fed …

The U.S. Department of Justice and seven states on Monday sued Visa Inc., MasterCard Inc., and American Express Co. over their merchant-acceptance policies, especially those that restrict discounting for other cards or payment forms. Visa and MasterCard immediately announced a settlement, but AmEx said it would fight. The antitrust lawsuit …

Barely a week after Congress landed a hard left punch on the card networks, the U.S. Department of Justice might be about to land a right in the form of a lawsuit challenging network rules aimed at preventing merchants from surcharging for credit card payments or otherwise steering customers toward …

Speculation has flowed freely about the effects of the controversial “Durbin amendment” on merchants, card issuers, and the payment card networks should the interchange-regulation measure become law. But data about how consumers would be affected are scarce. Javelin Strategy and Research, however, says research it conducted late last year, in …

Credit-union representatives descended on Capitol Hill Tuesday to lobby Congress against proposed debit card interchange regulations in the Senate version of the sweeping financial-reform bill. On Wednesday, two frequent political enemies—banks and credit unions—will declare that they’ve stopped fighting each other so they can fight the so-called Durbin Amendment together. …

Presenting yet another wave of petitions signed by hundreds of thousands of customers, the convenience-store industry turned up the heat on Congress Thursday to enact curbs on debit card interchange. The 1.68 million signed petitions, collected by Speedway SuperAmerica LLC and unveiled by the c-store chain and NACS, an industry …

Americans now spend more than half a trillion dollars a year on PIN-debit cards, but the merchant-acquiring industry is still adjusting to consumers' embrace of point-of-sale debit. At the same time, debit card pricing is shifting from a simple, flat-fee model to a more complex one, which is raising the …

Retailers fighting what they say are high payment-card acceptance costs are not letting the heated debates about health care or President Obama's planned troop surge in Afghanistan push interchange off the political stage. The NACS?The Association for Convenience and Petroleum Retailing, next week will launch what it calls Phase 2 …

A payments-industry security group formed earlier this year is going through the rather dry procedures of establishing a charter and electing leaders. But one of its first projects could get pulses beating a little faster: a simulated mass attack on databases containing payment card and demand-deposit account information. The exercise …

Acquirers and independent sales organizations have plenty of opportunity to build transaction volume with merchants despite the economic downturn. They just need to work harder at incentives for merchants to accept cards instead of cash or checks and on satisfying merchant needs, according to a new research report released Wednesday …