Bring on the violins. The sky is falling, the sky is falling.
From our prospective, the banking industry might be responding to antitrust concerns by possibly having a research firm fight its battle. Credibility could be trumped by those "product providers" who fund the reports. Some research firms are known for their pay-to-perform status. Pay a fee and the results you want appear in a "White Paper". While not making any specific assertions in this case, the report could be inked with finger prints of those seeking to protect their multi-billion dollar merchant interchange fee scheme. A simple visit to their website identifies that they are commissioned by banks.
According to the research report, cardholders might be penalized if the Office of Fair Trade imposes new regulations on Visa® and Mastercard®; both credit card associations and member banks are accused of allegedly price-fixing their credit card fees.
Decades ago, when these merchant interchange fees were cost based there were about ten separate charges. Today, there are nearly one hundred and most retailers use the highly efficient and cost saving electronic processing terminals, rather than the antiquated bulky credit card imprints and swiping cards under a stack of carbon copy receipts.
We expect to read more and more "research" threats like this one, but we are ready to share each with you.
[Source: WayTooHigh.com via Personal Finance & Savings]
