Author: Jordan

The credit card surcharge may be ready for a larger role in payments. An antitrust settlement with Visa and Mastercard over interchange fees gained preliminary court approval last month, advancing a pact that envisions a shift of some card swipe fees from merchants onto credit card holders. The settlement with Visa and Mastercard details a post honor-all-cards retail landscape in which merchants use surcharges to steer customers from paying with higher-interchange fee credit cards towards payments using less-expensive cards.  The pact, if it gains final court approval and survives appeals, could herald a new era of credit card surcharging, which…

Concord Summit Capital, a leading intermediary between sponsors and capital providers for commercial real estate debt and equity financing, arranged $28 million in mid-construction financing for The Albritton, a 163,176-square-foot mixed-use project midway between Houston and Galveston, Texas. The debt was structured on a non-recourse basis at a 70% loan-to-cost ratio. The Albritton, located at 408 S. Friendswood Drive, Friendswood, TX 77546, consists of 111 Class A apartments, 11,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, 9,000 square feet of office space, and a 72,000-square-foot parking garage. The development features an elevated pool and gym, fire pits, a concierge desk, secure entry, and marble-finished common areas, all set behind a natural three-inch limestone façade with classical detailing. Concord Summit Senior Managing Director…

Cryptocurrency prices show mixed movements with Bitcoin near $64,267 and Ethereum around $1,860. Pluang Source link

The biggest challenges Cost remains one of the biggest barriers and landlords are often expected to fund the upfront capital expenditure required to improve a building, while tenants may be the ones who benefit most directly from lower energy bills, reduced operational costs and a better working environment. That imbalance can make retrofit difficult to underwrite, particularly where the rental uplift is uncertain or where lease terms do not provide enough time to generate a clear return on investment, underpinned by rising costs in an uncertain political landscape. For occupiers it is equally complex. Businesses want efficient, sustainable, well-managed workplaces…

In addition, BM Solutions is increasing rates by up to 0.19% across its buy-to-let range.The changes apply to personal ownership buy-to-let and let-to-buy purchase and remortgage products, limited company buy-to-let purchase and remortgage products, as well as product transfer and further advance fixed-rate deals.Existing product applications must also be submitted by 8pm on 20th July to secure current pricing. Skipton Building Society is increasing rates across its fixed-rate mortgage range for both new and existing customers. The lender said the changes will be available from 21st July, with product end dates also being extended to November 2028, November 2029 and…

WSFx Global Pay Ltd (GlobalPay), the trusted standard in global payments and India’s most trusted name in foreign exchange and cross-border payments, announced the launch of GlobalPay Connect, a Forex Card Distribution Platform, a strategic partner initiative that enables RBI-authorized forex businesses to become Authorized GlobalPay Forex Card Distributors. Through the platform, partners can offer secure, multi-currency forex card solutions to their customers while unlocking new business and revenue opportunities.GlobalPay Connect is open to Authorized Dealer Category-II (AD II) Forex Dealers, Full-Fledged Money Changers (FFMCs), and Banks, enabling them to offer GlobalPay’s secure multi-currency forex cards as part of their product portfolio. Supporting 30…

If you’re planning to buy a home soon, there are a few strategies you can use to help keep the costs down. twomeows/Getty Images Mortgage rates have been above 6% for the majority of 2026, and have hovered right around 6.5% over the last few months. While these are not the highest rates borrowers have seen in the last few years, they’re not particularly ideal, either. At an average mortgage rate of 6.625%, a median-priced home of $403,200 would come with a monthly payment of nearly $2,600 on a 30-year loan. Unfortunately, rates aren’t likely to drop anytime soon, either. There’s little…

My top 10 things to watch Monday, July 20 1. This is a welcome sign: Stock futures are breaking the “Monday morning slide” pattern. Biggest gainer is the Nasdaq, benefiting from strength in semiconductor names including SK Hynix . Despite a weekend of more fighting in the Middle East, WTI crude is steady this morning. 2. Plenty of stocks are working in this market, but spotting them requires looking beyond technology, where the once-hot trades have cooled. That was the crux of my Sunday column for Investing Club subscribers. 3. The reverberations of Chinese startup Moonshot AI’s new Kimi K3…

There’s no denying that artificial intelligence has stormed into our lives like a tsunami. Now that wave is heading straight for our finances.In fact, it’s already here. Nearly half of consumers say they have already used AI tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude to help manage their personal finances or they are considering doing so, according to a recent Experian survey.And while younger people are more likely to embrace the technology, older generations lately have been hopping on the bandwagon too, with 41% of Gen Xers and 28% of baby boomers saying they are open to…

He served as mayor from 2017 until his return to national politics in 2026, with a mayoral agenda that spanned transport integration, bus reform, housing, homelessness, policing, skills and regional devolution. His path back to Westminster was engineered through a by-election in Makerfield, which he won in June, having been blocked from an earlier attempt to re-enter Parliament. With no other candidate able to secure the 20% of parliamentary nominations required to mount a challenge, Burnham’s leadership of the Labour Party was effectively confirmed without a contest, and he was formally declared leader on 17 July. He takes office today as…