Dear Subscriber,

Back in February, the UK celebrated the ten-year anniversary of the Chip-and-PIN card. This month we celebrate an even more momentous occasion: the 50th birthday of the credit card. On June 29th, the first credit card, a Barclaycard, was launched. In the first year, over one million people signed up for one since then we never looked back!

Elsewhere in the newsletter, there’s a Brexit update as Visa may be forced to move some its UK-based workforce to the continent due to an agreement clause inserted into its Visa Europe acquisition deal.

From Visa to MasterCard, which has revealed it has set itself a five-year target of connecting 40 million micro and small merchants to its electronic payments network.

Enjoy!

On June 29th, 1966, Barclaycard launched the first ever credit card, 50 years later, over half of the UK’s population owns a credit card and monthly spend exceeds £15 billion. Today £1 in every £3 spent goes through Barclaycard, with 4.6 billion transactions processed in the UK last year.

In the first major payments-related company move, hundreds of Visa jobs may be moved to mainland Europe following Britain’s decision to leave the EU.

This week, MasterCard set itself a five-year target of connecting 40 million micro and small merchants to its electronic payments network.

Building on the existing card processing relationship, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and First Data have formed a new strategic partnership that will see First Data facilitate payment acceptance for the bank’s clients.