Elite investors are boosting valuations by targeting overlooked payment processing fees. VeriFee helps portfolio companies unlock 0.5% in revenue savings—translating to millions in EBITDA without operational changes. In a tough M&A landscape, this “frictionless optimization” delivers instant ROI. With no disruption, upfront cost, or vendor switch, it’s the clearest lever for IRR improvement, exit amplification, and roll-up advantage.
Embedded Payments offer convenience but come with rising costs, hidden fees, and restrictive agreements. By embedding payment processing into software, providers add layers of expense while limiting transparency and vendor choice. As businesses lose negotiating power and face non-negotiable rates, the need for financial control, pricing clarity, and free-market competition becomes urgent in an increasingly opaque ecosystem.
Surcharging shifts credit card fees to customers, normalizing a 3%+ cost that far exceeds actual processing rates. While pitched as cost-saving, it erodes trust, risks legal issues, and damages customer loyalty. Processors profit through inflated fees and double-dipping. Businesses should reject junk fees and demand transparent pricing to protect both their brand and their bottom line.
Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) drives sales by offering flexibility, attracting Gen Z, and reducing cart abandonment—but it comes at a cost. High fees, increased returns, and customer service risks can quietly erode profitability. To decide if BNPL is right for your business, analyze incremental profit vs. cost, not just sales growth. Success lies in smart strategy, not default adoption.
Mastercard aims to eliminate passwords and manual card entry by 2030 through tokenization, biometrics, and numberless cards. These innovations target soaring online fraud, which hit $48B in 2023. While offering enhanced security and consumer trust, they also raise concerns over cost, data migration, and accessibility. Businesses must balance adoption challenges with the promise of a safer, frictionless future.
Senator Dick Durbin’s Credit Card Competition Act aims to end the Visa-Mastercard duopoly by requiring banks to support at least one alternative payment network. With support from VeriFee and trade groups, the bill targets reduced swipe fees, increased transparency, and restored competition. If passed, it could lower merchant costs and consumer prices, reshaping the credit card processing industry.
Embedded payments promise seamless transactions and faster cash flow, but they come at a cost. Small businesses face rising fees, limited flexibility, and loss of control as platforms lock them into closed ecosystems. Opaque pricing and high switching costs erode profit margins and competition. The convenience of embedded finance masks deeper structural issues threatening merchant autonomy and sustainability.
A $5.6 billion settlement against Visa and MasterCard highlights the long-standing issue of excessive swipe fees and anti-competitive practices in the payments industry. The ruling underscores the importance of monitoring interchange rates and payment terms, as small discrepancies can heavily impact retail profits. Retailers are urged to stay vigilant to avoid hidden costs and protect their bottom line.
The proposed reclassification of cannabis from Schedule I to III could reshape financial access for cannabis businesses, enabling banking, credit card processing, tax deductions, and research. While promising, it also introduces new regulatory hurdles, market competition, and oversight challenges. The shift marks progress—but success depends on strategic adaptation, especially for small businesses and fintechs entering a newly legitimized space.
