Visa and Mastercard revise “swipe fee” settlement with U.S. merchants

A long-running court fight over credit-card interchange fees took a major step as Visa and Mastercard agreed a revised settlement with U.S. merchants. Reports indicate the deal would trim average fees, loosen the “honor-all-cards” rule so merchants can decline some higher-fee rewards cards, and expand surcharging rights. Some merchant groups still oppose the terms, but the direction of travel suggests modestly lower costs for accepting cards and more merchant choice.

Why this matters now:

Interchange topped roughly $80B+ recently, so even small basis-point moves shift billions across sectors.

Trading lens: near-term headwinds for rewards-heavy issuers and the networks; cost tailwinds for high-card-mix merchants; second-order effe ...