The Stack: Swipe Fees, Crypto & Improvements From Mastercard
This week, fintech companies get saucy with innovations, while retailers fight back against credit card fees
This story is part of “The Stack,” a weekly column that takes a deep dive into the ways tech companies are shaping the future of fitness and wellness
You know the drill: The lease is signed on your next gym franchise and everything is in place. Looking to save some money, you turn to online marketplaces to purchase equipment from an overseas vendor. But when you check out, it’s a nightmare.
And it is not just due to tariffs. Cross-border transactions are complicated and costly, and are often the reason retailers and brands, as well as vendors, struggle to expand their business overseas.
Well, PayPal has you covered.
“Businesses around the world lose billions annually in cross border fees while navigating a complex banking system to make and accept payments,” the company said, adding that it is “simplifying cross-border commerce for merchants by connecting an unmatched combination of cryptocurrencies, digital wallets, and merchants worldwide, while simultaneously reducing transaction fees by up to 90 percent.”
“Pay with Crypto,” which is powered by PayPal, was built to connect merchants to a $3-plus trillion market “by enabling instant crypto to stablecoin or fiat conversion.”
Under the hood, it requires the latest tech working at the speed of light. For retailers and brands, the process is simple and is designed to support transactions “across 100-plus cryptocurrencies and wallets such as Coinbase and MetaMask,” PayPal said, noting that the solution “expands merchant revenue opportunities and taps into a global base of more than 650 million crypto users.”
Alex Chriss, president and CEO of PayPal, said in a statement that businesses of all sizes “face incredible pressure when growing globally, from increased costs for accepting international payments to complex integrations. Today, we’re removing these barriers and helping every business of every size achieve their goals.”
The CEO also said the company recently launched PayPal World, “our global partnership bringing together five of the world’s largest digital wallets on a single platform, fundamentally reimagining how money moves around the world. By enabling seamless cross-border crypto payments, we’re breaking long-standing barriers in global commerce.”
“These innovations don’t just simplify payments — they drive merchant growth, expand consumer choice, and reduce costs,” Chriss said. “This is the future of inclusive, borderless commerce, and we’re proud to lead it.”
New Payment Pathways From Mastercard
Mastercard said it is modernizing supplier reconciliation and streamlining virtual card payments with several new innovations.
The credit card giant is rolling out widescale global availability of Mastercard Receivables Manager, the company’s “automated solution that makes virtual cards more efficient, secure and cost-effective for businesses to accept,” Mastercard said in a statement adding that to give payment service providers greater flexibility in how they offer B2B payment innovations, “Mastercard is also introducing Commercial Direct Payments, an advanced straight-through processing solution that fully automates virtual card payments and reconciliation.”
Coupled together, the company said it now delivers “a fast, innovative B2B payment experience for both buyers and suppliers at an opportune time when embracing the digitization of commercial payments is increasingly moving from optional to essential.”
Citing its own research, Mastercard said 93 percent of B2B suppliers said digitizing payment processes is a top priority for their business, “while two-thirds still acknowledge regularly falling short of buyer payment expectations.”
“Businesses today expect simple, secure, and seamless ways to pay and get paid — with many turning to virtual cards to meet those expectations,” said Marc Pettican, global head of corporate solutions at Mastercard. “To support our clients wherever they are on their modernization journey, we’re thrilled to bring to market another simple path to receivables automation, and to fuel the consumerization of B2B payments around the world in the process.”
Mastercard Receivables Manager, launched just two years ago, has evolved with new features such as multi-language support and secure card-on-file functionality to drive global digital commerce. The company said acquiring partners worldwide are embracing this innovation to modernize supplier virtual card acceptance and strengthen buyer-supplier relationships.
In the U.S., providers such as Elavon and Run Payments offer the solution to address manual processing hurdles, which 42 percent of suppliers highlight as key barriers to adoption. Meanwhile, EazyPay in Bahrain leads adoption in the Middle East, transforming accounts receivable workflows.
The next wave of B2B payment innovation, Commercial Direct Payments, redefines accounts receivable automation by enabling direct card payment processing between buyers and suppliers. This eliminates manual steps, deposits funds automatically, and integrates detailed remittance data into AR workflows for seamless efficiency.
Retailers Turn Up Heat Against Credit Card Firms
Retailers across various segments are getting increasingly cranky over credit card fees, and a coalition they formed back in 2011 is pushing for passage of the Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA). The group also points to a new survey that shows two-thirds of consumers favor lower swipe fees and said they believe the CCCA would help reduce those fees.
The Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC) said it represents retailers, supermarkets, convenience stores, gasoline stations, online merchants, hotels and others who are “fighting for a more competitive and transparent card system that is fair to consumers and merchants.”
The MPC survey showed that 71 percent of respondents said lower credit card swipe fees “would be ‘a good thing,’” compared with only 16 percent who disagreed. The survey found that twice as many people (48 percent) believe “‘more competition in the credit card market’ would decrease swipe fees for merchants and consumers alike than believe the opposite (24 percent),” the MPC said in a statement.
The online survey of 1,012 U.S. adults was done between July 21 and 23 by polling firm Big Village.
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