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Filtered by Cards — 19 articles

John Winchcombe

28 April 2025

5 min read

Payment News

A Centre for Economic Policy Research paper has focused on the need for central banks to be financially resilient.

Cards Cash Usage News

John Winchcombe

11 May 2023

2 min read

EPI Refreshed and With New Impetus

The European Payments Initiative (EPI) was established to build a unified pan-European payment system to rival Mastercard and Visa. Consumers and merchants would be able to use a card, digital wallet and make person-to-person payments. The idea was backed by the European Central Bank (ECB) and 31 banks joined the EPI.

Cards Digital Payments News

John Winchcombe

21 Dec. 2022

5 min read

UK Retailers Demand Intervention as Payments Shift to Cards

The British Retail Consortium has just published its 2021 survey of its members who account for 36% of total UK sales from 25,000 shops. While card usage soared, so has the cost of card payments, prompting the BRC to demand emergency intervention by the government to prevent price gouging by the card companies.

Cards Surveys

John Winchcombe

4 Nov. 2022

4 min read

How Profitable are Credit Cards?

In 2019, 75% of US households had at least one general purpose credit card. Revolving consumer credit at the end of 2021 was over $1 trillion.

Cards

John Winchcombe

15 Sept. 2021

4 min read

Going Contactless

On 15 October 2021 the UK raises its contactless limit to £100 from £45. It also raises the cumulative transaction limit to £300 before a PIN must be entered. This increase means the UK now has the highest contactless limit in Europe and the seventh highest in the world.

Cards Digital Payments

John Winchcombe

24 Aug. 2021

4 min read

Payment News

aRussia’s second largest bank, VTB, has been working on tools to identify the optimum location for bank branches and ATMs. It has used a wide range of parameters, over 5,000, to calculate how to reach the most customers and generate the most sales from a new location.

ATMs Cards News

John Winchcombe

24 Aug. 2021

2 min read

Card Fees Rise Despite Interchange Fee Caps

CSMPI’s latest Insight magazine reports on card fee changes in 2021 around the world. It suggests that each tweak in the fees may appear small but, overall, the additional revenue is likely to be over $1.1 billion in the US alone.

Cards

John Winchcombe

10 Aug. 2021

3 min read

Digital Payments - and the Last Mile to the Unbanked

The Federal Reserve Board (FRB) of Atlanta has published an article by Oz Shy, ‘Digital Currency, Digital Payments, and the ‘last mile’ to the unbanked.’ As the number of cashless locations increases, the article considers what stops people going digital and looks at policy options in response.

Bank Branch Cards Cash Usage

John Winchcombe

21 June 2021

2 min read

Threat to Payments from Chip Shortage

A shortage of EMV chips is creating real risks for payments since these chips enable ATM cash withdrawals and all forms of digital payments.

ATMs Cards Digital Payments

John Winchcombe

21 June 2021

2 min read

Challenges of Electronic Payments

In the last week there have been a number of payment related stories. What links them all is that they demonstrate that electronic payments face a range of challenges that have a direct impact on customers. The role of the regulator is evident in all of them whether requiring action or ‘guiding’ providers to take action.

Cards Commercial Banks Crime

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John Winchcombe

21 June 2021

3 min read

BoE and the BIS Launch the London Innovation Hub

On 11 June the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) opened its latest Innovation Hub Centre in London following on from hubs in Hong Kong, Singapore and Switzerland that have already been established. Canada, Frankfurt and Paris, Stockholm, supported by all of the Scandinavian central banks, and New York are planned to open in due course.

Cards CBDC Central Banks

John Winchcombe

1 June 2021

3 min read

Payment News

In 2015 Russia set up a national payments card network called Mir. It was set up with government backing after MasterCard and Visa cut off services to a number of the country’s banks following the annexation of the Crimea.

Bank Branch Cards News

John Winchcombe

18 May 2021

2 min read

Germany Faces Higher Card Fees

Card fees are complicated. CMSPI have issued a useful paper looking at Germany’s payment market and what has happened since 2015. The Merchant Service Charge (MSC), what merchants pay to receive a payment from their customer, consists of three elements, as below.

Cards

John Winchcombe

18 May 2021

5 min read

Payment News

A recent article in Kenya’s Star newspaper looked at why the informal transport system of ‘matatus’ (privately owned cars or minibuses acting as shared taxis) does not make use of M-Pesa wholeheartedly. It suggests two reasons.

Cards Digital Payments News

John Winchcombe

11 April 2021

2 min read

Payments Leadership Council

Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover Financial, as well as industry counterparts FIS, Fiserv and Global Payments, have formed the Payments Leadership Council to represent their position to the government and in the media on a range of issues. Card payments are in the spotlight currently.

Cards

John Winchcombe

5 March 2021

2 min read

Lack of Payment Competition Raises Costs

Mastercard has announced that the interchange fee on products bought online in the EU by British card holders will increase from 0.3% to 1.5%. Debit card fees will increase from 0.2% to 1.15%. This fee increase is justified because now the UK is no longer part of the EU, fees will be charged at the ‘inter-regional’ fee level rather than ‘intra-regional’ fee level.

Cards

John Winchcombe

2 Feb. 2021

4 min read

Call for Higher Contactless Payment Limits

UK Finance, who represent the banking industry, are reported by The Times newspaper to have asked the Treasury to increase the contactless payment limit from £45 to £100. Prior to the COVID pandemic the limit had been £30. The Financial Conduct Authority would have to approve any change.

Cards Country Profile

John Winchcombe

2 Feb. 2021

5 min read

Payment News

Cardtronics runs 285,000 ATMs in 10 countries, making it the world’s largest operator of non-bank cash machines. This Houston based company is a major player in the cash industry but is now being pursued by two companies, firstly Apollo Global Management and Hudson Executive Capital and secondly NCR.

Cards CBDC News

John Winchcombe

4 Jan. 2021

1 min read

Cost of Payments Stubbornly High

Andy Haldane, Chief Economist at the Bank of England, made a speech about the move to digital payments. Despite all the innovation of credit cards, ATMs, faster payments, open banking etc., he quoted Thomas Philippon, Professor of Finance at the New York University Stern School of Business, who estimates that the unit cost of financial services has hardly changed over the last century.

Cards

Latest News

Payment News

EPI Refreshed and With New Impetus

UK Retailers Demand Intervention as Payments Shift to Cards

How Profitable are Credit Cards?

Going Contactless

Payment News

Card Fees Rise Despite Interchange Fee Caps

Digital Payments - and the Last Mile to the Unbanked

Threat to Payments from Chip Shortage

Challenges of Electronic Payments

BoE and the BIS Launch the London Innovation Hub

Payment News

Germany Faces Higher Card Fees

Payment News

Payments Leadership Council

Lack of Payment Competition Raises Costs

Call for Higher Contactless Payment Limits

Payment News

Cost of Payments Stubbornly High

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