Interchange arbitrage facing push-back

Challenges for a common Fintech revenue model

Introduction

This is another one of those posts where I lacked a topic and simply typed “Payments” into Google News. This time I was rewarded with a story that Meta has started limiting the use of Credit Cards to pay for advertising. This is from Payments Dive:

“Meta Platforms is requiring some advertisers to abandon credit card payments and use monthly invoicing or direct bank debits starting April 1. The social media giant declined to say Monday how many advertisers are affected or why it’s making the change.

Smaller advertisers aren’t affected by the change, a Meta spokesperson said Monday in an email. The owner of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp will continue to accept credit cards, but is reducing the number of advertisers allowed to pay with them.”

The restriction is on large payments, exempting small advertisers; the cutoff amount was not disclosed. This follows a similar move by Meta rival Google Ads. The Telco industry did this earlier in 2025. Less prominent billers have moved in this direction as well.

I may be making a mountain out of a molehill, but I think this aligns with other efforts to scale back Card usage B2B in areas like disbursements, AP, and Retail POS. I have touched before on how Networks’ prices become a ceiling under which competitors can underprice. This post outlines examples where this happening.