It's interesting that we live in 2026 and people still don't understand the fees of credit card processing.

Visa charges only a Assessment fee the majority goes to Issuer Bank +PSP.

E.g: Interchange fee (0.8-1.8%): Paid by acquirer to issuer (card-holding bank)

Assessment fee (0.1-0.3%): Paid to card network (Visa, Mastercard)

Acquirer margin (0.3-0.8%): Retained by merchant’s payment processor

The army of middlemen with their hands out is the worst part, where you also have fees paid to the merchant bank, the iso/payment service provider, and a chain of agents. In disfavored industries like adult content, this can reach 15% or more, plus thousands in annual "high risk" fees (even if chargeback rate is good). It's a huge anticompetitive racket, and the sooner US can shake off Visa/MasterCard, the better off we'll be.

EU regulations limit those interchange fees to 0.2% for debit card transactions and 0.3% for credit card transactions so total costs are much lower for businesses. Cards have replaced cash even for small transactions in most European countries.

The banks and the payment processors are the real customers of the payment networks and they all do better when they can squeeze more money from the end users - the cardholders and the businesses. Pix cuts out these middlemen and that’s an existential threat to their business model, ergo an “investigation” by the Trump admin.

All should be free. Imagine if government decided to impose 3% revenue tax, yet these companies get a free pass.

If these networks cannot run this for free, then they should be nationalised and tax payer should cover it. It will be cheaper (because it will become non-profit) for everyone and better.