Visa, Mastercard Draw New Government Scrutiny Over Debit-Card Routing

The Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether the security tokens used by Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc.
restrict debit-card routing competition on online payments, The Wall Street Journal reported Oct. 17, citing people
familiar with the matter.

The agency has been probing whether Visa and Mastercard block merchants from routing payments over other debit-
card networks for the past few years, according to the report. The FTC expanded its focus in recent months to routing
challenges stemming from the networks' security tokens, though it is not clear whether the investigation is a new probe or part of the previous one, the people familiar with the matter told The WSJ.

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