The credit card industry processes a massive volume of transactions — about $4 trillion this year in the U.S., according to BI Intelligence estimates. With so much money in play, it's no wonder that a host of startups are trying to carve out a niche for themselves and offer services to merchants and consumers that will rewrite the value they get from every credit card payment.
But the credit card processing industry isn't going to change over night. These startups are entering into an extremely complex and entrenched space.