Mastercard and Visa etc. have processed all banks transactions in the past on debit and credit cards without installments and depending on who the bank wishes to use for their different cards.
"wherever bank is accepted"...does not exist. They use either Visa and MC etc....their rails is what creates acceptance. Banks do not have payment rails.
Answer is flat NO.
The visa and mastercard API products are products visa and mastercard will sell/market to banks and will attract different transaction fees. Banks will only use these if they see value. Banks who do opt in will negotiate additional fees with their merchants to allow spliting on credit cards at POS.
The merchant agreement between bank and merchant as below will include an optional or not optional line or section that reads.... - Visa and MasterCard Credit (POS split)
The rate in the agreement will be higher than standard and include the upline splitit and Visa/MC fees and bank charges.
Before using these installement products from Visa and MC (powered by splitit) banks need to asses the additional $ they receive from increased transactions at merchants and the loss in interest recieved by allowing merchants this feature.
There still needs to be 2 parties agree before it is available to the consumer. Visa-Bank $$$ agreement to use their installment API. And a subsequent Bank-Merchant $$$ agreement to offer splitting at POS.
FYI. Any merchant (business) can call their bank and negotiate merchant fees. Reduce my merchant fees or I am switching banks. Click, fees reduced. These agreements as bank customers are individual. They all are set at a base price but their is room to negotiate depending on the size of you transactions(bargaining power). The point is these are individual agreements and merchant tailored although most times not questioned by businesses. So splitit being an option can be a negotiation here. Will banks push it here or will merchants demand it here? That is the question.
It is all based around banks exploring the effect in revenue and probably doing alot of testing first to figure out if it us a good or bad idea to offer this product to their merchants. Visa and MC marketing material will say its great...as they are marketing to banks to increase their transactions.
It is a product offered by Visa/MC to banks to offer to their customers whom are merchants (businesses). Negotiations and agreements need to be made along the way so it us not just a banks choice to offer splitit.
This is my understanding of the Visa/MC API products.
SPT Price at posting:
51.5¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
