Merchant

Interchange fees are a major part of the costs merchants pay to accept payment cards. While merchants seek relief from fees during a time in which their businesses face serious damage from stay-at-home edicts because of coronavirus, the credit card companies and banks quickly began to dig in their heels.

The firms say they can't handle crushing loan demand from small and medium-sized businesses.

Online lenders can help the agency distribute loans faster as it gets set to deploy emergency funding to small businesses.

Lenders and government guarantors can use loan technology to bring immediate relief to business owners, former OCC official Jo Ann Barefoot says.

The Treasury Department and Small Business Administration are responsible for distributing $350 billion in coming months.

With coronavirus driving more merchants to promote electronic payments over cash — and contactless payments over cards — many are still asking their customers to share a potentially virus-laden pen to sign a receipt or screen at the point of sale.

The 2008 package proved some banks were too big to fail. But the rushed $2.2 billion stimulus shows now any company can be bailed out.

U.K. supermarkets which have been experimenting with mobile scan-pay-go may see more consumers adopting the technology due to social distancing requirements in stores.

With coronavirus presenting significant challenges for retailers and the technical challenges of imposing interchange fee changes in the networks, Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover are holding off on the updates.

On Dec. 31, 2019. Dollars in thousands, except for average loan amount.