Today In Payments: Mastercard To Hike Fees For UK EU Transactions; NCR Closes $2.5 Billion Acquisition Deal For Cardtronics

In today’s top news, Mastercard will up its interchange fees for U.K. shoppers, and NCR closed its acquisition deal of Cardtronics. Plus, Payoneer is in reportedly in talks to merge with a SPAC.

Mastercard Planning Higher Fees For UK EU Transactions

Mastercard will up its interchange fees for U.K. shoppers purchasing EU goods. Following Brexit, EU’s cap on interchange fees no longer applies to the U.K. The fee hike won’t benefit Mastercard, but will go to British banks and other card issuers. If companies pass the higher fees onto consumers, shoppers will see prices go up accordingly.

NCR Closes $2.5 Billion Acquisition Deal For Cardtronics At $39 Share Price

NCR has officially closed its acquisition deal with Cardtronics in an all-cash transaction of $39 per share, totaling $2.5 billion. The deal “accelerates the NCR-as-a-Service strategy,” the press release said.

Report: Payoneer Could Go Public By Merging With SPAC

Digital payments company Payoneer is in talks to go public via a business combination with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) FTAC Olympus Acquisition Corp., a deal that could value the merged firm at over $2.5 billion.

MoneyGram Teams With Visa Direct, Checkout.com On P2P Payments

Global payments firm MoneyGram is advancing its Visa debit card deposit service across Europe in a partnership with Checkout.com and continued collaboration with Visa’s real-time push payments platform Visa Direct.

Minding The Digital Gap: What UK Merchants Can Do To Boost Digital Sales

Forty-six percent of U.K. consumers now shop online, but there’s a mismatch between the digital features merchants offer and those consumers say they can access conveniently. In the latest Global Digital Shopping Index, 2,000 consumers and 500 U.K. merchants were asked what digital shopping features were the most valued — and there’s work to be done to get them both on the same digital-first page.

PPP Round Two: Familiarity Breeds Success For Banks And SMBs

The PPP band is back together! Drew Edwards, CEO at Ingo Money, and Dan Speight, CEO at Planters First Bancorp (PFB) chatted with Karen Webster for the first time since last May about the second round of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The takeaway? Like a lot of things, PPP will be much better, the second time around for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and their bankers.

Visa, Mastercard, Amex Earnings To Shed Light On Contactless, Debit Surge

Cross-border spending is down, as debit and contactless are ramping up. As Visa, American Express and Mastercard report earnings this week, we’ll get a sense of consumer and corporate appetite for credit, and whether travel is set to soar again.