Trump has announced that credit card users are being charged interest rates of 20–30% and said he wants to impose a temporary cap of 10% for one year. I wonder how such a move would impact Visa and Mastercard as stocks.
At the same time, I’m questioning the premise itself, credit card interest rates are set by issuing banks, not by Visa or Mastercard, which operate payment networks rather than lending businesses.
If a rate cap were actually implemented, the direct financial impact would likely fall on banks rather than on Visa or Mastercard. Still, markets often react to headlines before nuance, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see short-term selling pressure on Visa and Mastercard driven by misunderstanding rather than fundamentals.