The UK’s Payments Regulator Calls out Visa and Mastercard for Fee Increases but Stops Short of any Real Action?
The UK’s PSR has just published its interim findings into Card Scheme Fees. Here’s a short summary and some context until I read in more detail….. …
Why the Recent Visa Mastercard Settlement May Be Bad News for Merchants
Mastercard and Visa have reached a settlement with merchants over a long-standing swipe fee case, with the card giants agreeing to reduce interchange fees and permit more flexibility on surcharging and anti-steering rules. …
Choose Your Payment Processor Wisely: Avoid Common Traps with These 8 Red Flags to Look Out For
I’ve helped a lot of large merchants find the right payments partner(s) over the years and been involved throughout the buying process, from identifying key requirements and challenges early on, right through to negotiating the contract and deploying the solution. …
Recent Insights for Advancing Card Payment Fraud Prevention
Previously I’ve written about how merchants can reduce bank declines thereby increasing revenue and reducing customer friction. However, much bigger problems for merchants are typically i) reducing false positives and ii) preventing actual fraud. …
Reducing Bank Declines: a Strategic Approach for Merchants
In my previous blog I discussed the difficulties merchants have with spurious bank declines – where the transaction looks good to the merchant but the cardholder’s bank declines it for something other than, say, “insufficient funds”. …
Airlines: The Real Cost of Banking & Payments has Doubled Since 2019
So, What’s the Problem? Legacy arrangements and systems have helped the banking and payments industry generate billions in extra profit from the Airline industry. …
Are Gremlins Really to Blame For Your Card Payment Woes?
I listened to a podcast recently with Patrick McKenzie. Patrick is a serial software entrepreneur and business all-rounder who worked at Stripe and still advises them on product and company strategy. …
Friendly Fraud Surpasses Criminal Fraud for Online Merchants
The ECB recently published its annual card fraud report for 2021 which shows CNP fraud at its lowest levels since records began and a 12% reduction on the previous year. …
UK’s Supreme Court Lands Heavy Blow Against Visa and Mastercard
In a historic victory for merchants, the UK’s Supreme Court has unanimously upheld the Court of Appeal’s previous ruling, finding that interchange fees do amount to a restriction of competition, insofar as they set a floor, below which merchants cannot negotiate with their acquirer. …
Brexit Could Increase Card Fees by Millions
Brexit Could Increase Card Fees by Millions but the Regulators Don’t Care. Most merchants have seen card fees reduce significantly in the last few years and this would be set to continue if it were not for… erm, Brexit. …