The Merchants Payments Coalition issued another press release today saying that "merchants welcomed lawmaker concern over credit card interchange practices at a hearing this week in the House Judiciary Committee's Antitrust Task Force. The Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC) chairman and senior vice president and general counsel of the National Retail Federation Mallory Duncan told the panel that the collective setting of interchange fees by Visa and MasterCard is a violation of federal antitrust laws. MPC advocates a payment system that is transparent and open to competition."

The European Central Bank has published the fifth in a series of progress reports on the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) (PDF). In particular, the bank has called on the banking industry to set up a rival debit card scheme to challenge the dominance of Maestro in the EU - saying "such a scheme would stimulate competition and would ensure the close involvement of European banks in the governance of the scheme. ... Any additional European debit card scheme should operate under EU law and should, accordingly, process personal data in line with EU data protection laws."

Arthur E. Wilmarth, Jr. of the George Washington University Law School has published an article in the Connecticut Law Review titled "Wal-Mart and the Separation of Banking and Commerce" (PDF). His conclusion is clearly stated: "Congress should prohibit further acquisitions of ILCs by commercial firms."

Yesterday, the US House Judiciary Committee Antitrust Task Force held a hearing to examine credit card interchange fees. Mehgan Belanger reports for Convenience Store News on the many inconsistencies and "opposing facts regarding the fees that banks charge merchants for accepting credit-card payments."

Progressive Grocer also reports on yesterday's hearing.

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