Mastercard, banks at loggerheads on payments merger Share Tension between banks and the US payment giants that issue their credit and debit cards has escalated after Mastercard described banks’ arguments that the proposed merger of three domestic payment systems was necessary as “hypothetical at best”. In preliminary views on the merger of the New Payments Platform, BPay and eftpos on June 4, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission questioned whether the benefits of a deal would outweigh the costs and called for more detail from the banks. Mastercard told the ACCC the banks could lawfully collaborate on payments innovation through joint ventures or other structures authorised by the ACCC.