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Payments

Yesterday

Mastercard and Visa are resisting attempts to regulate their processing fees and forcing them to be disclosed.

Mastercard and Visa resist RBA plan to force fee disclosure

The US card giants are pushing back on the central bank’s objective of making their charges more transparent.

  • James Eyers

This Month

Tap and go

Banks pick fight with RBA over wholesale payment fees

The central bank is considering stricter caps on “interchange fees” in its review of payment costs. Worth $2.1 billion annually, squeezing this could hurt competition.

  • James Eyers
Findi runs ATMs for Indian banks and has been building a payments system, FindiPay.

Payments provider Findi in $30m bolt-on acquisition ahead of IPO

Its backers have their eyes peeled for the Indian subsidiary’s IPO, which they’ve been told could see the unit valued at hundreds of millions of dollars.

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Alex Teoh, Mint Payments.

Travel fintech Mint Payments gears up for $20m secondary round

Perennial Value Management, Duncan Saville’s ICM Allectus Capital and Kelly Partners Investment Office may seek to part with their minority positions.

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
There is no consensus among the major banks on how to deal with surcharging.

Major banks split on surcharge overhaul as complaints surge

There is no consensus over the way forward for Australia’s controversial system of charging extra for card payments.

  • Updated
  • Lucas Baird
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Commonwealth Bank has told the Reserve Bank to ban surcharges completely for both debit and credit payments.

CBA urges Reserve Bank to scrap all card surcharges

The bank believes a complete ban on debit and credit card imposts is the simplest way to deal with surcharging inequity.

  • Lucas Baird

December 2024

Square argues a debit card surcharge ban will play into the hands of the major banks.

Debit surcharge ban unfairly favours major banks, claims Square

The Block subsidiary introduced “blended” card payment fees which include using its software. They have become a flashpoint in the RBA’s payment cost review.

  • Updated
  • James Eyers
The RBA is reviewing how surcharging works after complaints that it was a growing and hidden cost of buying goods and services.

There are more hidden costs to payments than people think

Consumers should not pay excessive surcharges, but a total ban will not lower the expense of card payments for businesses.

  • Jon Davey
Metrics managing partner Andrew Lockhart is also the chairman of Navalo.

Metrics moves to compulsorily acquire BNPL underdog despite objections

Shareholders have accused Metrics of “grossly underestimating” the company’s valuation, “systematically devaluing the company through sham capital raises”, “selective disclosure” and “predatory behaviour”.

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
The use of Visa and Mastercard debit cards to pay for government services has been illegally attracting merchant fees since the Howard government era.

Cut surcharges by divorcing debit and credit, Westpac tells RBA

Blended pricing structures charge retailers a flat fee no matter the card, and lead to debit card users subsidising benefits for credit card users.

  • Lucas Baird and James Eyers
Pay.com.au, a platform that allows businesses to turn their expenses into frequent flyer points. Founder Ed Alder pictured.

IPO-candidate Pay.com.au launches raise to fund US expansion

Street Talk understands Pay.com.au is seeking to raise $15 million via a private placement at a $303 million pre-money equity valuation.

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Cafés say coffee prices will rise across the board if debit surcharging is banned.

Restaurants warn fee ban will lead to prices to rise

The government’s proposal could see credit card users doubly penalised by paying higher prices, and face an additional surcharge set around 2 per cent.

  • James Eyers

November 2024

Cuscal is chaired by Elizabeth Proust.

APRA warned Cuscal on risk settings ahead of IPO

The payments company, set to list on the ASX next week, is working with the regulator to improve compliance systems after an external review disclosed in its prospectus.

  • James Eyers and Lucas Baird
Findi won a contract to supply the State Bank of India with over 4000 ATMs last year. Over 10 years, it is expected to be worth $620 million.

Payments tearaway Findi carves out $75m unit from Indian giant Tata

Findi is set to acquire Tata Communications Payment Solutions, which will bring 4600 operational ATMs into its network and swell full-year revenue by a third.

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
CBA CEO Matt Comyn at the ASIC Annual Forum on Thursday afternoon.

CBA’s Comyn boils over at Apple free-riding on banks

The CBA boss said the government should consider hitting tech companies with a bank-style levy to even the competitive playing field.

  • James Eyers and Lucas Baird
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Nick Molnar and Anthony Eisen. Afterpay celebrated its 10th birthday this week.

Inside a decade-long rollercoaster ride with Afterpay’s Nick Molnar

Ten years ago this week, the buy now, pay later firm’s founder sold some jewellery to his business partner Anthony Eisen in a novel way: pay-in-four.

  • James Eyers and Jonathan Shapiro

October 2024

Anthony Eisen in 2021.

Anthony Eisen bows out at Afterpay

The co-founder of the buy now, pay later pioneer told staff at Block, which he joined after the takeover, he would step away from an executive role.

  • James Eyers
Cynthia Scott has navigated Zip Co back towards growth after rising interest rates in 2022 crunched the company’s valuation.

Zip banks on interest rate cuts as transaction volumes soar

The buy now, pay later group has endured a difficult two years and returned to growth, particularly in the US, where the majority of sales are processed.

  • James Eyers
Cuscal CEO Craig Kennedy.

IPO hopeful Cuscal worth up to $656m at 10.3-times EBITDA: BofA

This is its second shot at securing an ASX listing after it pulled the plug on a $367 million to $378.4 million IPO bookbuild last year.

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
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Small businesses fear payments squeeze in surcharge ban

Business owner Rob Anderson says payment processing costs have jumped “exponentially” with 80 per cent of customers now using card and digital payments.

  • Lucas Baird

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/payments-hpo