A. Balto

After seven years, the titanic battle between more than five million merchants, led by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., and Visa USA and MasterCard International has been resolved. Visa and MasterCard agreed to eliminate their honor-all-cards rules ("HACRs"), pay over $3 billion in damages and substantially reduce their offline debit card interchange fees. The settlements are not yet final, but it is useful to consider their long-term impact on the card associations, other payment-system competitors, merchants, banks and consumers.