The Weekly Wrap: all you need to know by Friday COB | Oct 7th

By Gaia Lamperti

The Weekly Wrap is published every Friday and recaps the week’s main stories and deals, as well as upcoming events and announcements. For Prime subscribers only.

The Big Story

Trade bodies representing more than 240,000 businesses, including the British Retail Consortium, the Federation of Small Businesses, the Retail Charity Association, have called on the UK government to axe a “£5 billion stealth tax” by card payment giants. The Axe the Card Tax campaign claims UK businesses are enduring extreme losses every year due to the major card schemes, and that the pandemic has accelerated the trend towards cashless payments.

For every payment made on a card, the retailers are charged a Merchant Services Fee, comprising interchange Fees, Acquirer Net Revenue and Scheme Processing Fees. Merchants say that Scheme and Processing Fees have been increased by 600% since 2014.

The Axe the Card Tax campaign asks the government to allow businesses the opportunity to use cheaper alternative providers as the cost of doing business crisis intensifies.

“We know that card fees are a significant burden for small businesses, but their impact is often hidden. These charges are often confusing and lacking in transparency, pushing up costs for businesses and consumers alike. There’s a strong case for the Payment Systems Regulator to intervene, to help level the playing field for small firms,” commented Martin McTague, National Chair of the Federation of Small Businesses.

Be on the lookout for

Innovate Finance, the UK’s industry body, is launching ‘Startup Academy’, a programme designed to support the early and mid-stage community of founders, CEO and fintech leaders in their growth journey. Launching next month, it will include practical workshops, peer networking roundtables and investor meetups specifically for startup and scale-up members and their senior teams.

Events & Appointments

• The biggest FinTech meet in MENA will happen 10th- 13th of October at the Dubai World Trade Centre and will highlight the latest tech innovations, products, and regulations that will lead to the transformation of the Banking and Financial services sectors.
• Sibos 2022 returns in person in Amsterdam next week and this year it will focus on ‘Progressive finance for a changing world’, with over 250 speakers debating major industry topics including embracing the digital landscape, succeeding in uncertain times and driving sustainability and ethics.