Both Visa and MasterCard issued quarterly earnings releases Wednesday and that information, along with the Fed publishing effective debit interchange rates for 2011, have created quite a bit of buzz across the industry. As expected, Visa’s overall PIN-debit numbers are down and MasterCard’s are up. That was helped by the analyst notes stating that Bank of America moved their PIN-debit transactions over to the MasterCard network. Big win for the Purchase, New York network, but Visa is making inroads on the global playing field with a “bring it on” mindset apparent wtihin both companies. Also of interest, the Department of Justice probe of Visa fee structures which might indicate the continued influence merchants have in Washington to keep the pressure on the networks. From a Bloomberg article:
Saunders, 66, adjusted the network’s fee structure to defend Visa’s leading market share after the U.S. rules on debit-card processing took effect in October. On March 13, the U.S. Justice Department’s antissued a civil investigative demand asking for information about Visa’s debit strategy, Saunders said in the conference call.
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