FX.co ★ Wal-Mart sues Visa for high swipe fees

The managing board of one of the most popular payment systems in the world, Visa, has faced a suit for $5 billion. It is Wal-Mart, the biggest supermarket chain in the world, which has filed a lawsuit against Visa. Wal-Mart's owners blame the card network for a loss of several billions of dollars. The supermarket accuses Visa of excessively high interchange fees. Now, other retail chains are checking swipe fees charged by Visa on the doubts that a similar scheme might be applied for their stores. Looking at the number of daily operation with Visa debit and credit cards, we can easily assume that even a one-hundredth percent change in commission can bring a huge benefit especially if it has been done for years. Wal-Mart also took a shot against Visa over payment card security. The lawsuit also claims that Visa's current system of magnetic stripes is not enough secured and susceptible to fraud. The card security system is out-of-date and has not met modern personal data requirements for several years. There were another complaints against Visa earlier. Lately, a lot of problems have arose with Visa cards among its clients. However, the financial corporation does not pay enough attention to these issues. Besides, the giant uses its position on the world market frequently shifting the obligation on retailers to recoup customer losses. Wal-Mart understands that presently it would be very hard to completely abandon the cooperation with Visa, such a measure would cause a severe decline in sales. At least, the retailer hopes to be paid for the losses. Wal-Mart estimated the hole from excessive banking fee at $5 billion for the period of 2004-2012.