News in Brief

Interchange Fee Case Permitted to Proceed in the UK

The UK’s Competition Appeals Tribunal has rejected an appeal by Visa and Mastercard against a class action that claimed that businesses that received payments by commercial cards paid fees much higher than they should have been, causing them significant losses. Visa and Mastercard had objected to the claims being certified, but the Tribunal ruled that the cases can proceed as collective actions.

The legal firms fighting the case say, ‘multilateral interchange fees operate like a tax on business, increasing the fees businesses have to pay to their banks for accepting commercial card transactions’.

Switzerland Prepares for Less Cash

Switzerland is facing a change in cash usage. Part of the cause is fewer post offices, down 47% to 800, and bank branches, down 16% to 2,600, between 2015 and 2023. The number of ATMs has fallen from 7,200 at the start of the century to fewer than 640 today. The changing cash environment is putting cash supply costs under pressure, risking cash supply. This has now become political, with two popular initiatives underway about cash.