'Credit card chaos'? Financial institutions bet big on repeal of first-of-its-kind Illinois law

To fully understand the ongoing slugfest between banks and retailers, you have to go back to May 2024.

But first, an explanation of interchange fees. Each time a shopper swipes their credit or debit card, it sets off a complicated string of payments between banks. The retailer's bank pays an "interchange fee," typically around 1% to 2% of the transaction cost, to the consumer's bank. The fees include both a set amount and a percentage of the transaction, but the credit card companies, namely Visa and Mastercard, control how they're calculated.