Interchange fees

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., has scheduled a hearing on swipe fees for Nov. 19, but executives from Visa and Mastercard aren't among the confirmed witnesses for the lame duck hearing.

The Federal Reserve Board's top payments official said the agency should not move forward with its push to lower the cap on debit interchange fees until it has a better understanding of recent Supreme Court decisions.

A digital dollar is likely on the way out in favor of non-government crypto, but those betting for fewer restrictions on fees and less antitrust litigation will likely be disappointed.

A Supreme Court ruling from earlier this year regarding national bank preemption is already playing a prominent role in the banking sector's challenge to a state law on charge card fees.

Interchange reductions for small Canadian businesses join global efforts to curb swipe fees, prompting Visa and Mastercard to diversify

Vice President Kamala Harris could stoke a conflict between bankers and merchants over interchange fees as she targets high food prices as part of her presidential campaign.

The American Bankers Association and the Illinois Bankers Association, among other groups, say a state law barring swipe fees for taxes and tips should be preempted by federal law.

Illinois' recent move to prohibit the inclusion of taxes and tips in credit card interchange fees suggests that electronic transactions are too expensive and also that there are too many entities working unilaterally to reduce those costs.

The Illinois state legislature, as part of an agreement with retailers to raise state tax revenue, passed a budget bill that would bar the collection of interchange fees on sales taxes, excise taxes and tips for transactions that would be subject to Illinois sales taxes.

The next major chance the lawmakers could have on the so-called "swipe fee" legislation will come next year as Congress looks toward a tax package.

Banks rely on fee income to a greater or lesser extent depending on business model, and the Biden administration is intent on cutting consumer fees across the economy. But that push might hamper another administration priority: financial inclusion.

Some analysts said that the Capital One-Discover deal would undercut the reasoning behind the Credit Card Competition Act — authored by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. — which aims to spur competition for Visa and Mastercard.

The Supreme Court justices grappled with the question of whether a newly formed company can challenge a regulatory rule after the six-year statute of limitations has expired, a decision that could have broad impact on plaintiffs' ability to challenge agency rules.

The recently announced merger of Capital One and Discover would create a credit card behemoth, but would also create a credible challenger to the Visa-Mastercard duopoly. Regulators will have to choose between having both or neither.

Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, have added Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Jack Reed, D-R.I., as cosponsors to a bill aimed at increasing credit card competition and lowering consumer fees.

The change would lower the maximum fee on a $50 debit transaction from 24.5 cents to 17.7 cents. The central bank points to lower processing costs for card issuers in recent years.

Investors have bought a one-branch bank in Elmore City, Oklahoma (the town that inspired "Footloose"), renamed it Old Glory Bank and plan an all-digital brand that emphasizes patriotism. Experts question whether Old Glory is offering a solution to a nonexistent problem.

Visa and Mastercard credit card-issuing banks with more than $100 billion in assets would be required to give merchants a lower-cost choice for processing each transaction under a new bill proposed to spur competition.

Though the retailer's threat to drop Visa in the U.K. appears to have subsided, companies like Clik2pay, Affirm and Curve have seized on an opportunity to advance account-to-account transactions, buy now/pay later and cryptocurrency.

The central bank wants financial institutions to enable additional routing options for online purchases, a change industry advocates say would strain the resources of smaller card issuers.