All articles by Verdict Staff
Verdict Staff
French not-for-profit provides gateway for WikiLeaks donations
WikiLeaks is bypassing the Visa and MasterCard donations blockage by using the French Carte Bleue system, through an arrangement with the not-for-profit Fund for the Defense of Net Neutrality (FDN2) FDN2, which aims to defend freedom of speech on the internet lists WikiLeaks as one of its current projects, and has set up an account for the whistle-blowing website.
Europe: Acquiring back in fashion
In recent years Europe has yielded fewer bank alliances than the fundamentals suggested fragmentation, legacy platforms, lack of scale, and need for product improvements are all characteristics endemic to European acquiring, and these same characteristics tend to motivate bank-processor alliance formations.
MasterCard Polska calls for competition against “centralised” rules
MasterCard Polska has rejected The Central Bank of Polands accusations that it compromised attempts to drive uptake of card payments in the country through lowering interchange rates. The National Bank of Poland said on Tuesday that by not signing up to its proposals to cut interchange fees over the next five years
Banking on mobile
Bank 2.0 author and mobile banking evangelist Brett King is determined to shake up the industry His start-up, Movenbank, claims it will be the worlds first cardless bank when it opens its virtual doors later this year
China UnionPay monopoly in breach of WTO rules
The decision was welcomed by the US governments who first filed a complaint in 2010, backing Visa Inc, MasterCard and a number of other US-based companies in their efforts to gain greater access into the Chinese market.
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WikiLeaks: e-payments is a human right
Whistleblowing website WikiLeaks brought home a landmark victory against major players in the e-payments industry last week, after an Icelandic court ruled that e-commerce gateway Valitor (formerly Visa Iceland) should resume processing credit card donations after a one-year hiatus The donation block began last year, when WikiLeaks published sensitive government and corporate documents, including US diplomatic information, and fuelled rumours the payments industry was acting under government pressure.
Visa, MasterCard settle interchange law suit
Visa, MasterCard and nine major issuing banks have settled a seven-year-long lawsuit, agreeing to pay retailers at least $6bn, in a law suit that alleged the payments industry conspired to fix interchange fees The class action, filed by a number of US merchants including Kroger, Safeway and Rite Aid, accused the networks and issuers of price-fixing, arguing that the banks originally spun off MasterCard and Visa through initial public offerings in 2005 and 2006 largely to avoid the appearance of a monopoly.
Consumer credit card balances rise
Revolving debt on US credit cards rose by over 11% in May 2012, according to a Federal Reserve report 19 consumer credit report shows revolving debt, almost entirely constituted of credit card debt, rising to $870.2 billion.
Unstable ground
This time the dispute centers on the swipe fee that retailers pay on credit card transactions a fee that was not touched by last years Durbin amendment — and it has generated a class action antitrust action brought by some five million US retailers against the major card associations and the nations 13 largest bank issuers, including such Citigroup, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and US Bancorp
JCBI opens first branch in Brazil
The new branch – JCB International do Brasil Representao Comercial – is the first JCBI subsidiary in Latin America and the network said it will kick-start the expansion of JCB card issuing and merchant acquiring business across 12 countries in the continent