Card Networks Are Not the Enemy
Interchange is expensive. It also buys things that account-to-account payments still have not replicated.
By Omar Haddad
Every few years someone announces the death of the card. Then a consumer disputes a charge, gets their money back in three days, and the card survives another cycle.
What the fee actually pays for
Guaranteed settlement, a dispute process, fraud liability that sits somewhere other than the shopper, and global acceptance. Cheap rails that offer none of these are not yet competing on the same axis.