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Merchant Card Service - News
US Financial Institutions Added 2 Billion ACH Payments to Annual Volume
Chicago , Illinois , April 16, 2007 - Nearly 16 billion automated clearing house (ACH) payments were made in 2006, a 14.5 percent increase over 2005, according to statistics compiled by NACHA - The Electronic Payments Association and issued today at the PAYMENTS 2007 conference. Read More:
:: COURT ORDERS VISA TO REPEAL SETTLEMENT SERVICE FEE
U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones of the Southern District of New York ruled yesterday that Visa USA's settlement service fee is unlawful and must be repealed. The fee, which Visa enacted in 2003, allowed the card association to penalize its top 100 issuers whose check card volumes dropped 10% or more or that leave Visa to avoid paying their portion of the $2.025 billion settlement Visa made in the merchant antitrust lawsuit that challenged Visa's and MasterCard's "honor-all-cards" rules (CardLine, 9/18/2003). Jones also issued an order allowing all of Visa's top 100 issuers with debit agreements signed with Visa while the settlement service fee was in place to terminate their agreements if they would prefer to issue debit MasterCards. "We're extremely excited about the opportunity the ruling creates in the marketplace since we believe there is now an element of fairness that did not previously exist," Noah J. Hanft, MasterCard general counsel, tells CardLine. Hanft adds that MasterCard will target current Visa debit card issuers, in particular those that signed their agreements while the settlement service fee was in place, as potential debit MasterCard issuers. "Now they can fairly evaluate the decision," he says. Rosetta Jones, Visa USA vice president of corporate relations, countered that the fee has had little impact on competition in debit card issuance. "Visa's settlement service fee has not prevented members from issuing MasterCard debit cards," she said, in a statement. Visa says it is analyzing the court's ruling and weighing a possible appeal.
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Credit Card Issuers Ranked by Receivables |
Rank |
Organization Name |
Location |
12/31/2005 |
12/31/2004 |
% Change |
1 |
JPMorgan Chase & Co. |
Wilmington , DE |
$138,878,000,000 |
$135,370,000,000 |
2% |
2 |
Citigroup Inc. |
New York , NY |
$136,500,000,000 |
$139,600,000,000 |
-2% |
3 |
MBNA America |
Wilmington , DE |
$104,947,821,000 |
$101,900,000,000 |
2% |
4 |
Bank of America |
Charlotte , NC |
$60,790,331,000 |
$58,629,000,000 |
3% |
5 |
Capital One Financial Corp. |
McLean , VA |
$49,463,522,000 |
$48,609,571,000 |
1% |
Source: The Electronic Card Industry Directory ( eCID ) , 2005 Edition
Resource for all types of Financial Calculators: http://www.bankrate.com/yho/rate/calc_home.asp
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