Credit Unions Today: Despite Recent Court Settlement, Mastercard to Raise Fees by More Than $250 Million, Merchants Group Says
“This new increase proves the credit card companies are continuing to take advantage of Main Street,” MPC Executive Committee member and National Association of Convenience Stores General Counsel Doug Kantor said. “They made a show of ‘settling’ legal claims, but nothing in the settlement limits the fees that go directly to Visa and Mastercard. That leaves them free to continue to increase these fees and they are doing it already. The only answer is for Congress to pass the Credit Card Competition Act and bring fair market competition to the badly broken payments market.”
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American Banker: The forces driving JPMorgan Chase to build a digital media business
The Merchants Payments Coalition, which has been lobbying for swipe-fee reform for years through other methods and supports passage of the proposed Credit Card Competition Act backed by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and other lawmakers, isn't wowed by the "very small relief" merchants might see from the latest proposal to cap credit card interchange.
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Bloomberg Law: Mastercard Still Raising Some Fees After Retailer Settlement
The card company plans to raise its network “assessment” fee to 0.14% from 0.13%, equating to an annual increase of $259.1 million, based on the more than $2 trillion in Mastercard transactions last year, according to the Merchants Payments Coalition, a Washington-based group of retailers that advocates against higher payments fees. The group obtained documents shared with Bloomberg Law showing the increase. Retailers say any fees charged to banks get passed through to them.
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Restaurant Business: Despite last week's reduction offer, Mastercard is increasing some credit-card fees
One week after Mastercard offered to temper the fees restaurants and retailers pay per credit card transaction, a group representing those merchants says it’s learned the financial giant intends to raise another charge it levies on business partners. According to the Merchants Payments Coalition, the credit card company is planning to increase what is known as an assessment fee to 0.14% as of April 15, an increase of one one-hundredth of a point. The higher charge would apply to both credit and debit payments made with a Mastercard, the Coalition said.
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Digital Transactions: Mastercard Plans a Network Fee Hike for Later This Month. Merchants Aren’t Happy
Not surprisingly, the fee increase is not being well-received by the MPC and its membership. “Merchants regularly see network fees increase and new ones raised,” says Doug Kantor, an MPC executive committee member and general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores. “Most of the industry does not see last week’s settlement as a victory as it has a loophole that leaves the door open for Visa and Mastercard to raise network fees, which this is,” Kantor adds. “There will be a lot of anger and frustration from merchants over this. This increase just reinforces the experience merchants have had that, when it comes to network fees, they lose.”
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Gifts and Decorative Accessories: Mastercard At it Again: Card Fees Going up $250 Million Despite Settlement
Almost immediately after agreeing to reduce “swipe” fees charged to merchants to process credit card transactions, Mastercard plans to increase fees for both credit and debit card transactions by more than $250 million this month, the Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC) said today. “This new increase proves the credit card companies are continuing to take advantage of Main Street,” MPC Executive Committee member and National Association of Convenience Stores General Counsel Doug Kantor said.
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CSP Daily News: Mastercard Plans to Raise Certain Credit, Debit Card Fees
“This new increase proves the credit card companies are continuing to take advantage of Main Street,” MPC Executive Committee member and National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) General Counsel Doug Kantor said. “They made a show of ‘settling’ legal claims, but nothing in the settlement limits the fees that go directly to Visa and Mastercard. That leaves them free to continue to increase these fees and they are doing it already. The only answer is for Congress to pass the Credit Card Competition Act and bring fair market competition to the badly broken payments market.”
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News Ghana: Visa and Mastercard Swipe Fees Reached Record High
“Once again, Main Street merchants and consumers were hit with a new record for swipe fees in 2023,” said Christine Pollack, vice president of government relations for The Food Industry Association. “Last year, Visa and Mastercard fixed the banks’ prices to the tune of more than $100 billion in credit card swipe fees. That is an awful toll for Main Street businesses and their customers to bear.” U.S. merchants were charged $7.5 billion more for credit cards with Visa and Mastercard logos in 2023 than they were in 2022, the Merchants Payments Coalition said. Total swipe fees, including debit cards, topped $172 billion, compared to $160 billion in 2022. And of that figure, more than $132 billion in swipe fees were from debit and credit cards with the Visa or Mastercard logos, the coalition said.
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Wall Street Journal: Analysis: The Visa and Mastercard Settlement Doesn’t Put Fee Disputes to Rest
Some merchants want the ability to negotiate directly with the banks—not Visa and Mastercard—in a free-market environment where the banks have to compete with one another on setting interchange rates. “This settlement is a bad deal for merchants,” said Christopher Jones, an executive committee member for Merchants Payments Coalition, an industry trade group. Jeff Brabant, head of federal government relations at the National Federation of Independent Business, said the settlement isn’t enough and the issue needs to be addressed with legislation.
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Modern Retail: Proposed Deal From Visa & Mastercrd Causes Concern Among Retailers
Doug Kantor, general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores, said one of the issues with the settlement is it doesn’t address how Visa and Mastercard set the prices for swipe fees that are uniform across banks. This means businesses can’t price-shop the way they might for other vendors or expenses. “Merchants can’t differentiate and say, ‘Citibank, you’re too expensive, I want Wells Fargo or these other guys,'” he said. “They can only say ‘I’m going to take Visa and Mastercards or I’m not.” Kantor is an executive committee member of the Merchant Payments Coalition, which supports seeing legislation to help control swipe fees. He said some members of the coalition are already considering what they may have to do to challenge the settlement.
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