There could be a major battle brewing between banks, regulators, and merchants.
And caught in the middle of all that might very well be you, the paying customer.
The Wall Street Journal put out a blistering report on Monday highlighting that one bank’s unexpected discovery of a potential loophole has other banks considering that same loophole.
In 2025, Capital One Financial purchased Discover Financial for $50.6 billion.
As part of that acquisition, Capital One gained a financial network that allows it to work more directly with merchants — and with less fear of regulation.
To better explain how this works: When you make a purchase at, say, a Walmart, there are actually three parties that are going to have an interest when you swipe your debit card.
In this case, those parties are Walmart, the bank that issued your debit card, and a payment network — Visa and Mastercard being the two you’ve most likely dealt with.
No matter what happens the banks will never lose money, it will always be the consumer. They want to do away with cash so that you are forced into these fees even though you are debiting from a bank account and not using a credit card. Always a “convenience fee”. If you decide to go old school and write a check some places won’t take it. It puts the consumer in a place where they are forced to pay more.