Skimming a little bit from every card swipe adds up. In 2020, merchants in the US paid about $110bn in processing fees for $7.6tn worth of card transactions, according to the Nilson Report. Pay-by-bank, which would enable sellers to take payment directly from a customer’s bank account, is part of the growing movement towards “open banking” — securely allowing consumers to give financial providers the ability to access their financial information. JPMorgan already allows account holders to instantly pay one another through Zelle, a mobile application launched by the largest US banks in 2017. However, Zelle’s use for retail payments remains extremely limited. Bank transfer payments have caught on in countries such as the Netherlands and India, but US consumers have been slower to take it up.

https://www.ft.com/content/f6d8d454-2413-4f2b-945d-825d0a68730b