Every so often, we see some drama brewing in the world of finance. The latest episode of this drama is a tussle between Amazon and Visa. It all started when Amazon announced that it will impose a surcharge of 0.5 per cent on all Visa transactions for purchases made on its Singapore site Amazon.sg from 15 September 2021. In a statement to The Straits Times, an Amazon spokesperson gave the reason for imposing this surcharge: “These costs should be going down over time, with innovation and technological advancements, which allow merchants to reinvest savings into low prices and shopping enhancements for customers,”
“Yet, despite these advancements, some cards’ cost of payments continues to stay high or even rise. As a result of Visa’s continued high cost of payments, a surcharge is being added to Visa credit card payments in Singapore. In response, Visa stated that: Visa maintains that the simplest,...