As bank earnings are announced this week, this marks another quarter with double-digit growth from the banks allegedly collusive, price-fixing practice of setting the merchant interchange fees. This time, for instance, Wachovia announce on Jan 19th that it reaped a 13 percent growth increase in fee and other income generated primarily by strong debit card interchange income and retail service charges.
Also on Jan 19th, Capital One Financial Corp. one of the country's largest credit card issuer of Visa and MasterCard announced that its profits were up 44 pct on fees.
On January 20th, Citigroup reported its fourth-quarter earnings rose 30%; revenues from the bank's international cards business advanced 19% to $1.36 billion.
