Yes, but I’m assuming the Fed’s payment system won’t offer rewards, so Visa would benefit from the existence of rewards’ schemes on their network versus others such as the Fed’s.
I disagree; the value provided by credit cards is the 0% APR 1-month unsecured loan that pays your transaction. This creates an ton of flexibility and by definition the rewards cost is returned to the buyer.
3% transaction fee means 0.1-0.2% to visanet, 2% in rewards and more than likely a large portion of the remainder is the cost of originating and serving that loan.
The rewards cost is returned to some, and is an expensive tax on others. If cheap float is desired, deposit account providers can provide it directly (some forward fintechs already do this).
It’s a small tax on some, sure, but also consider that the interchange rates merchants pay in the US vary by card brand and type. They actually charge much less for cards without reward programs (which are few and far between).
