Visa And Mastercard Face EU Scrutiny Over Card Fees Amid Push To Cut Foreign Payment Dependence

Visa Inc V and Mastercard Inc MA fees drew scrutiny from European Union antitrust regulators.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde emphasized the need to reduce its dependence on foreign payment providers, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. 

Regulators surveyed market participants about the fees they impose on financial institutions that provide card-payment services to retailers using Visa and Mastercard networks. The stocks are trading lower on Friday.

Also Read: Visa Offers $100 Million To Secure Apple Card Network In A Bid To Outdo Mastercard: Report

Mastercard and Visa have long attracted global civil complaints for charging consumers and businesses to use their cards.

Last December, Mastercard agreed to settle a $250.35 million (200 million pounds) lawsuit filed by millions of U.K. consumers alleging that the company unfairly imposed exorbitant fees on card transactions.

In 2019, the EU fined Mastercard 570.6 million euros ($646 million) for artificially raising the costs of card payments in the region. Regulators also approved a pact with the card companies that required them to reduce fees for foreigners shopping in the area.

Analysts rerated the stocks after their quarterly results.

RBC Capital analyst Daniel R. Perlin noted that Visa's second-quarter results provided insight into consumer health. Adjusted U.S. spending volumes remained steady, although some category shifts and a slight slowdown in cross-border activity were observed.

JP Morgan analyst Tien-tsin Huang noted that Mastercard posted stable, mid-teen organic revenue growth in the first quarter. The upside was broad-based, though management highlighted currency volatility and lower incentives as the internal surprise, per the analyst. However, cross-border decelerated slightly more than expected off a higher fourth-quarter base. Assuming no material macro shocks, the analyst feels confident in near-term numbers given pricing actions supporting growth.

Price Actions: At the last check on Wednesday, MA stock was down 1.07% at $564.04, and V is down 1.34%.

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