New York, Jan 15, 2026, 18:21 EST — After-hours
- Mastercard shares fell about 0.7% in late trade after a UK court backed the regulator’s power to cap cross-border card fees
- U.S. lawmakers revived a “swipe fee” bill this week, with President Trump voicing support, press releases showed
- Mastercard is due to report quarterly results on Jan. 29, a near-term test as policy risks stack up
Mastercard Incorporated shares slipped in late trading on Thursday, tracking a dip in Visa, after a UK court rejected a challenge to a proposed cap on certain cross-border card fees.
The decision lands as policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic circle the plumbing of card payments — a business built on fees that are easy to ignore when spending is strong and growth is clean.
Interchange fees, sometimes called swipe fees, are the slice of a card purchase paid by the merchant’s bank to the card-issuing bank. They help fund rewards programs and fraud tools, but they are also a perennial target for retailers and regulators.
In London, High Court judge John Cavanagh ruled the Payments System Regulator (PSR) can impose price caps on interchange fees tied to Europeans buying online from UK businesses. Mastercard declined to comment, while Visa has argued caps can reduce the value people and businesses get from card payments, Reuters reported. 1
The UK watchdog has said fee hikes after Brexit raised costs sharply for merchants. In a 2024 release, PSR managing director David Geale said Mastercard and Visa were able to raise cross-border interchange fees “to an unduly high level, costing UK businesses hundreds of millions of pounds.” 2
In the United States, the pressure point is broader. Senators Dick Durbin and Roger Marshall said this week they reintroduced the Credit Card Competition Act, which would require large banks to enable at least two unaffiliated networks for routing transactions, including one outside Visa or Mastercard. “Let’s pass the Credit Card Competition Act as soon as possible,” Durbin said in the release. 3
Card networks and banks are pushing back. The Electronic Payments Coalition, whose members include Visa and Mastercard, called the proposals a “big government takeover,” Payments Dive reported, citing a coalition release. 4
The politics are messy, and they are bleeding into rate policy too. JPMorgan Chase Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Barnum warned on Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s proposed 10% cap on credit card interest rates would be “very bad for consumers, very bad for the economy,” Reuters reported. 5
Wall Street is still buying the stock — just not blindly. Compass Point upgraded Mastercard to Buy this week and raised its price target to $735 from $620, saying payment networks should hold up better than other payments names into 2026. 6
The next hard datapoint is close. Mastercard said it will report fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results on Jan. 29, with a conference call scheduled for 9 a.m. ET. 7
But the path from headline to hit on earnings is rarely straight. The UK cap still has to be designed — level, timing and any appeal process could drag on — while the U.S. legislation may never reach a floor vote, even with noisy political backing.
For now, traders are watching whether regulatory talk turns into measurable pressure on cross-border fees, routing volumes, or pricing power — and whether management flags any of it when Mastercard reports on Jan. 29.
