EMEA Daily: Visa, Mastercard Blame Fraud for Fees

Today in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the U.K. Parliament’s Treasury Committee has published the responses of Visa and Mastercard after it questioned their decision to raise cross-border interchange fees. Meanwhile, LianLian Global has strengthened its offering in the U.K. thanks to a partnership with Uncapped that will allow the platform to offer financing to eCommerce businesses.

Visa and Mastercard Blame Fraud for Increased Cross-Border Fees

Visa and Mastercard have blamed fraud and growing competition for the increase in their cross-border fees since the U.K. left the European Union, a post on the parliament.uk website states.

In October 2021, Visa and Mastercard increased cross-border interchange fees on purchases made by U.K. consumers to European businesses, and by European consumers to U.K. businesses. Fees increased from 0.2% to 1.15% for debit cards and 0.3% to 1.5% for credit card transactions. Previously, fees had been capped by EU regulation.

In June, the U.K.’s Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) detailed plans for two market reviews focusing on card fees, including one that looks at cross-border interchange fees.

More on this: UK Payment Systems Regulator to Review Visa, Mastercard Fees

Following the PSR launching a probe into the issue, in July the Treasury Committee of the U.K. Parliament sent letters to Visa and Mastercard requesting them to explain their increases in cross-border fees.

Wednesday (Aug. 24), the Treasury Committee published their responses.

LianLian Global Partners With Uncapped on eCommerce Financing

LianLian Global and London-based FinTech Uncapped have announced a strategic partnership to provide online merchants in the U.S. and U.K. with access to financing to grow their business through the LianLian Global platform.

The partnership will enable eCommerce companies to secure loans of $100,000 to $10 million in under 48 hours, LianLian announced in a press release Wednesday.

The announcement follows the initial news that LianLian Global expanded its cross-border payments services to U.K. businesses earlier this month.

The expansion of the platform into the U.K. is intended to help eCommerce merchants and entrepreneurs sell abroad, make payments and get paid faster in key markets, including China and the U.S.

Outperformance of Luxury Retail Sector Sparks Global Payments and eCommerce Pact

Omnichannel digital commerce platform XY Retail has partnered with the Amsterdam-based payments company Adyen to help luxury retailers manage in-person and online payments globally.

Thanks to the partnership, luxury retailers will be able to handle all aspects of their commerce and payment needs with a single cloud-based solution, according to a press release.

With the new offering, XY Retail’s tech stack will now include Adyen’s payment processing tools to deliver an omnichannel experience with frictionless transactions, the release stated

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