Payment fees

If the company they plan to establish comes together and works — still a big if — it could give JPMorgan an edge in competing with other banks, lead to innovative payments and other products and create unforeseen issues.

Dueling blockchain stories — one arguing it was virtually useless, the other saying it could change real estate lending — seized the top spots this week, while readers also focused on tax reform aftermath and a key Senate retirement.

Merchants have been challenging surcharge bans in numerous states on free-speech grounds. They have the wind at their backs following another court victory on Wednesday.

Commercial customers, including small businesses, seem ready to pay up to shift to faster, more sophisticated electronic invoicing and payments, and enterprising banks that provide them the technology to do so could find it lucrative.

The Cincinnati bank says its investment unit is taking an equity stake in NRT Sightline to provide a wide range of banking and payments services to casino operators.

Banking lobbies are still opposed to the Durbin Amendment, which would hurt a free market, writes Mark Horwedel, CEO of the Merchant Advisory Group.

Walter Merricks, a consumer ombudsman represented by the U.K. law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, said a tribunal judge's analysis of the case was wrong.

The ruling could limit the U.K. as a venue consumer class-action suits.

Prepaid payroll companies are delivering new functionality and processes that enhance cardholder experience, writes Tal Clark, senior vice president and head of Money Network at First Data.

A suit alleges former inmates in Arizona's state prison system were charged $15 fee for teller-assisted transactions, compared with other customers who were charged nothing.

The Durbin Amendment is on the chopping block , which could reverse years of savings for merchants and consumers.

Wells Fargo & Co. is expanding its ExpressSend remittance payout network in India to include Axis Bank and, beginning next month, expanding a free-transfer promotion previously available only for those sending at least $500.

The U.S. Supreme Court ordered closer scrutiny of a New York law that bars merchants from imposing surcharges on credit card purchases, giving a group of retailers a partial victory by saying the measure might violate their free-speech rights.

Downward pressure on Canada’s bank fees continues, as Bank of Montreal this week announced it’s eliminating fees for Interac e-Transfers for all customers with Canadian checking and premium-rate savings accounts.

The Delaware company is also close to completing a compliance program to address anti-money-laundering and Bank Secrecy Act issues.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reached an agreement to continue accepting Visa Inc. credit cards in Canada, ending the retailer’s threat to bar the world’s largest payments network from its 409 stores in the country.