Visa appealed to the public as it responds to Walmart's decision to stop accepting the network's cards in Canada, accusing the retailer of "unfairly dragging" millions of shoppers into private negotiations over card fees.

Stonegate Bank in Florida has introduced a credit card that its customers can use in Cuba. In doing so, the $2.5 billion-asset bank, in Pompano Beach becomes first U.S. bank to make credit cards available for use in the Caribbean island nation.

Credit card issuers were among the worst performing U.S. stocks Tuesday after Synchrony Financial said it expects higher write-offs within the next year as consumers struggle to repay loans.

Synchrony Financial said Tuesday that it is expecting loan losses to rise over the next year as more consumers struggle to pay off their credit card balances.

According to a study released this week by the marketing analytics firm Bug Insights, the annual fee is by far the No. 1 reason why card users would change providers.

Many financial criminals are switching to a more sophisticated kind of identity theft in which they open accounts based on stolen identities, or on composites of information stolen from different people.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., wrote to Visa on Tuesday to denounce an alleged new fee assessed by the company on credit and debit card issuers that see their business shift to a competing card network.

Global trade protectionism in other countries increasingly poses an obstacle to keep the market for payments networks competitive.

The Electronic Payments Coalition's arguments supporting Visa in its legal battle with Walmart are not based in fact.

Credit quality has improved across the industry over the past few years, but don't expect that trend to continue because of several economic forces, big-bank CEOs said Thursday.