A big part of the problem in America is that,rather than route purchases through competing payment pipes,the fintechs still often have little choice but to rely on America’s credit-card networks to connect merchants, banks and consumers.The credit-card firms continue to demand a high rent of roughly 2%.Funds can take days to travel.That reflects the power and entrenched position of Visa and Mastercard.They process 86% of card payments through huge networks linking most shops and firms,which have to sign up to detailed terms and conditions.You might think that the answer is antitrust action against the credit-card firms.America’s competition watchdogs are growling.Last November the Department of Justice sued to block Visa’s $5.3bn purchase of Plaidafter Visa’s boss described it as an “insurance policy” to neutralise a “threat to our important US debit business”.The two firms abandoned the deal.On March 19th the Wall Street Journal reported that the justice department had started a new probe over whether Visa is inhibiting merchants from switching to cheaper services.But do not get your hopes up.The courts, which decide most antitrust cases in America, take ages to act and tend to be too lenient.
