By Alan Koenigsberg

Let’s face it — all good things must come to an end. In an era of automation, many familiar roles, products, and services have ridden off into the sunset. The Yellow Pages. Cashiers (at least the human kind). DVDs. Film cameras. All but gone. We could debate the speed and quality of it all, but the point is, change happens. And it’s happening now in the banking industry, where we’re seeing the end of the era for traditional transaction fee models.

Of course, this is a bit of a taboo topic, one many of my colleagues tend to avoid. But as those who know me will acknowledge, I rarely shy away from topics that drive transparency and inclusiveness. Recently, I discussed this and other topics moving our payments world in Going Boldly – The 2025 Top 5 in Payments and the Dark Mirror: Bold Predictions That Virtually No Banking Professional Will Say Out Loud. Pricing models, while delicate, include the challenges banks face today around transaction fees.

The real question is whether improved transparency is enough on its own, or if something deeper needs to change in how banks think about payment pricing.