Credit cards are definitely not punk rock, but that didn’t stop Virgin Money from wrapping two new credit cards with iconic Sex Pistols artwork. The UK financial services company is owned by the Virgin Group and founded by Sir Richard Branson. The unlikely pairing does make a little sense, considering it was Virgin Records that signed the Sex Pistols. Virgin Money explains the move on their website:
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It’s hard to imagine we’re half way through 2015 already. Credit cards have made news headlines quite a few times, but the year started off with a surprise cut in interest rates by the Bank of Canada. Lower interchange fees and the code of conduct came into effect in April. Services like Plastiq and Rentmoola have also risen in popularity with the younger crowd. Without further ado, let’s take a closer look at the top financial news headlines of 2015.
Last week, credit card giants, MasterCard and Visa, finally came to an agreement to cap interchange fees. The announcement is a major win for small businesses, who have been very vocal about high credit card fees. Although credit card fees will be capped at 1.5 per cent over the next five years, the deal falls short of a 10 per cent reduction across the board. Let’s take a look at whether small businesses believe lower fees will help their bottom line and lead to lower prices for consumers.
The Bank of Canada’s interest rate announcement last month was largely overshadowed by the shooting in Ottawa. This past week Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz held his first news conference since the interest rate announcement on October 22nd. Under normal circumstances, the news conferences would have taken place on the same day as the interest rate announcement, but with security concerns top of mind, it was postponed. Let’s recap the announcement, as well as discuss our central bank’s fear of low inflation, and the impact it has for consumers.
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After months of tense negotiations, cooler heads have prevailed over hotly-contested interchange fees. There were rumblings last week a deal had been struck between the federal government, credit card companies and the banks. It was made official with a press release this week. With an election set for 2015, there’s no doubt the federal government is breathing a sigh of relief for taking care of this issue once and for all.
The C.D. Howe Institute is the latest to weigh in on a topic that’s been in the headlines a lot lately: credit card interchange fees. Mati Dubrovinsky, a senior policy analyst at the C.D. Howe Institute, wrote an interesting piece for the Globe and Mail on why lower fees is not the answer.
