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NewsBriefs

This article contains excerpts from news stories recently posted under Breaking Industry Vijay Sondhi, NMI's CEO. NMI has
News on our homepage. For links to these and other full news stories, please visit www.green- a strong presence in ecommerce and
sheet.com/breakingnews.php. other card-not-present environments;
USAePay's strength has been with
card-present merchants.

ETA CONNECTS envisions
CardX wins: Kansas now surcharge friendly future commerce
CardX, a technology solutions provider specializing in credit card surcharging, The Electronic Transactions Asso-
scored a legal victory on Feb. 25 in the U.S. District Court, making Kansas ciation launched ETA CONNECTS,
the 47th state to officially recognize the CardX surcharging model. Jonathan a digital conference series featuring
Razi, chief executive officer at CardX, called the resolution of CardX LLC v. multiple perspectives from across
Derek Schmidt a defining moment for the payments industry. "Surcharging is the payments value chain. Billed as
becoming even more prominent as payments continue to move online," Razi a must-attend event for executives
stated. "And, with upcoming interchange increases in April, this is timely relief looking to stay ahead of the curve,
for the many companies that will be looking to reduce their costs of payment the series opened with "Future of
acceptance." Payments, Reshaping the Payments
Landscape Through Continued In-
NMI creates powerhouse with USAePay acquisition novation."

Payments technology firm NMI reported it acquired USAePay for an undisclosed In opening remarks, Jodie Kelley,
sum, creating a new merchant acquiring powerhouse. Based on 2020 tallies, the CEO at the ETA, noted that COVID-19
newly combined company handled in excess of 1.5 billion payment transactions changed the commerce ecosystem.
valued at over $100 billion, NMI stated. "Our combination reinforces our "We've all heard the statistics: the
position as the main independent player of scale delivering flexible white- number of users of mobile payments
labeled solutions agnostic of acquirer or merchant account provider," said increasing by 32 percent to almost 87
million, the growth of ecommerce
doubling and that same trend
anticipated from mobile wallet
usage," she said.
Visa, Mastercard on the hot seat

Visa and Mastercard are planning
major adjustments to interchange
rates come April 1, and Senator
Richard Durbin, D-Ill., whose name is
practically synonymous with federal
regulation of debit card interchange,
is crying foul. Any planned increases
in interchange rates could foil the
economic recovery, Sen. Durbin said.
The brouhaha comes on the heels
of news that financial software
company Intuit is taking Visa and
Mastercard to court, alleging that
interchange pricing models used by
the two card companies amount to
unlawful price fixing, with rates set
without regard to costs. In a lawsuit
filed in Federal District Court for the
Northern District of California, Intuit
said it has paid "billions of dollars"
in interchange fees over the past 17
years. The Intuit challenge appears
to be the first such action taken
against the card brands by an ISO or
a payment facilitator.

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