Fintech

The bipartisan proposal aims to save consumers money by forcing more competition in the lucrative credit card payments processing business. If enacted, it would result in "unbelievable" consumer backlash from its effect on rewards programs, Delta Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian said.

The Dallas company, which is in the midst of a four-year business overhaul, is facing a margin squeeze in the coming quarters. But even as analysts express skepticism, company executives aren't budging from the profitability goals they set two years ago.

Retailers fed up with interchange are trying numerous strategies to offset these costs, including piloting Pay by Bank use cases and even, in some cases, refusing to accept cards altogether.

An advocate for retail merchants takes issue with a BankThink article criticizing the Credit Card Competition Act.

Delta is trimming the increase in requirements for various status levels and adding access to its airport lounges. But the shift to using cash spent, not miles flown, in calculating rewards remains in place.

Visa said Chairman Al Kelly, the payments giant's former chief executive officer, will leave the board in January.

The Federal Reserve, which currently faces a Supreme Court case related to the fees, will vote on a proposal next week that will likely open up a rulemaking process to lower debit card interchange fees. 

NCR has completed the spinoff of its ATM business, Revolut doubles its number of fraud-fighters in two years, China builds a zone for digital yuan users, and more.

Goldman Sachs said that its partnerships with Apple and General Motors are hard to exit in the short term. So the investment banking giant is concentrating on making the deals profitable, even as it acknowledges that they may not be a long-term fit.

The movement of cash to money market funds from bank accounts will diminish lenders' ability to finance small and midsize firms, BlackRock Investment Institute said in a new paper. BlackRock and other money managers have spent much of this year readying to fill that void.