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Industry News
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House Passes Merchant Reporting; Senate Likely to Follow |
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The American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008 (H.R.3221), containing merchant card information reporting requirements opposed by ETA and other payment organizations, passed the U.S. House by a vote of 272-152 yesterday.
The bill will require merchant acquiring entities and third party settlement organizations to report the name, address, TIN, and gross amount of reportable payment transactions of each payee once a year. Third party settlement organizations are required to report only if the value of transactions exceeds $20,000 and the total number of transactions is more than 200 per year.
If, as expected, the bill clears the Senate and is signed by President Bush, it will take effect December 31, 2010. The Secretary of the Treasury will develop regulations to implement this provision.
Senate passage could come as early as today, and despite previous veto threats, President Bush indicated yesterday that he will sign the bill into law.
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Merchants Like Banks But Want Funding Backup |
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The results of a recent survey of small business owners reveals a desire for banks to offer other options when a loan application is denied. The Spring/Summer 2008 edition of the Capital Access Network (CAN) Small Business Barometer uncovered that 87 percent of rejected small business loan applicants were not offered any alternative by their bank after they were denied a traditional lending product. However, 69 percent said they would consider an alternative offered by their bank, highlighting an opportunity for banks to satisfy customer need by providing other funding options and ideas.
An overwhelming 87 percent of small businesses surveyed indicated that it is important to have access to a readily available and predictable source of capital, a reflection of today’s credit conditions. These results indicate that banks may have a compelling marketing opportunity to provide additional value, secure customer loyalty and responsibly meet demands for working capital even as credit conditions tighten. The survey was conducted online; respondents consisted of 276 small business operators who accept credit cards as a form of payment in their business.
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VISA Rescinds Debit Card Rule in the Face of Antitrust Inquiry |
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Visa Inc. has rescinded a rule that required merchants to treat Visa-branded debit cards differently when used as a PIN-debit card (and processed via non-Visa networks) from the same cards when used as signature debit cards and processed on the Visa network. The change came apparently in responsoe to an antitrust probe.
The U.S. Justice Department said it had been investigating whether the rule adversely affected competition in the debit card industry by restricting certain PIN debit transactions, particularly small-value and Internet transactions, and by potentially interfering with the introduction of new types of PIN debit services.
The Department’s Antitrust Division will close its investigation now that Visa has rescinded its operating regulation and adopted new regulations that should eliminate any potential for competitive harm. The Department had opened its investigation to examine whether Visa’s operating regulation had the potential to reduce competition between Visa and the PIN debit networks. The Department had not completed its investigation when Visa proposed eliminating the rules under investigation. The Department coordinated its investigation with the attorneys general of the District of Columbia, New York and Ohio, who conducted parallel investigations.
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Mastercard Settles Amex Suit |
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MasterCard Inc.has agreed to pay as much as $1.8 billion to settle a complaint that it blocked banks from issuing American Express cards.
The agreement will cost MasterCard about $1 billion over three years after taxes, the Purchase, New York-based company said today in a statement. American Express said the payments will act as a cushion against borrower defaults, which are likely to be more than expected.
American Express sued larger competitors MasterCard and Visa Inc. in November 2004 after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled they violated antitrust laws by preventing member banks from offering rival cards.
Last year, Visa settled its case with AmEx for $2.25 billion, and both Visa and Mastercard still face a 2004 suit by Discover, which reportedly seeks a combined $6 billion from the card companies.
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ETA Weighs In On Merchant Reporting |
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The Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) submitted written testimony as part of today’s House Small Business Committee hearing on the House version of the IRS merchant reporting proposal, opposing the scheme to have payment industry companies report merchant credit and debit card sales data as a way to uncover unreported cash transactions by merchants.
The hearing featured in-person testimony from representatives of First Data, Fifth Third Processing Solutions, National Small Business Association and the National Association for the Self-Employed.
In ETA’s written testimony, the association said the proposal before the committee is deeply flawed and Congress should “consider the likely inaccuracies that would be created by every offered version of the Merchant Card Information Reporting Proposal; the burden the Proposal makes on every business involved in the electronic transaction industry; and the resulting risk of trickle-down cost increases to be borne by the American consumer.”
ETA and others opposing the merchant reporting proposal have so far succeeded in efforts to prevent the estimated revenue from closing the so-called tax gap from being used to offset spending in the recent farm bill and unemployment insurance extension legislation. However it is now being touted as an offset to the cost of eliminating the alternative minimum tax for middle income taxpayers.
Read Testimony (.pdf)
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