Visa Inc. braved a stronger U.S. dollar and a decline in consumer confidence even as its customers’ spending overseas continued to slow during the first three months of the year.
The agreement with U.S. and U.K. regulators is on top of the $667 million it paid to U.S. authorities in 2012 for its handling of transactions that violated economic sanctions against Iran.
They haven't thrown in the towel yet, but comments by top executives at the two big banks suggested that their interest in finding financial services uses for distributed ledgers is wearing very thin.
Billions of dollars in investments are pouring into digital payments, but the hefty numbers obscure a regulatory and competitive squeeze that could shut banks out of the profits for good.
The slow U.S. adoption of real-time payments hurts half of Americans who live paycheck to paycheck, says Aaron Klein, a fellow at the Brookings Institution.
JPMorgan's blockchain effort could lead to solutions that overcome industry skepticism and regulatory concerns and perhaps attract more mainstream retail interest.
