By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Apple stock (NASDAQ:AAPL) traded 1.6% lower in Wednesday’s premarket, amid broad market weakness and news of fresh pressure on its payments business.
A report in The Wall Street Journal said that Visa (NYSE:V) may tweak the way it processes certain Apple Pay transactions to help banks lower the fee they pay to the iPhone-maker.
According to the WSJ, Apple officials have informed Visa executives of their objections and it is possible the planned changes won’t kick in.
Apple Pay was launched in 2014 and banks pay the company a fee when their cardholders use its mobile wallet. Under the planned new process, the fees wouldn’t apply on automatic recurring payments such as gym membership fee and streaming service charges.
Card companies like Visa, Mastercard (NYSE:MA) and American Express (NYSE:AXP) provide the gateway between banks and payment wallets such as those offered by Apple and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN). They help banks load onto the wallets and facilitate transfer of money from the bank via debit or credit cards to the wallet and eventually to the merchant.
In Apple vs banks case, the change would apply to Visa cards, though other networks may follow, the WSJ report said.