The April 2026 Visa changes aren’t “one fee event.” It’s four mechanics.

Written By Steven Leitman

Issuers, acquirers/ISOs, and cobrand teams: you’ll each see a different slice of it.

Pull your April Visa network invoice detail and reconcile it to your forecast/pricing/contract assumptions, not one variance line.

Four posts over the next two weeks. Each one ends with a concrete action for the affected team.

If you run cobrand programs: your pre-2024 contract language just changed economic effect when Level 2 sunset April 18. (Part 2)

If you run commercial card portfolios: CEDP has been live since October 2025, but most issuer forecasts still treat it like Level 3. (Part 3)

If you're an acquirer or ISO: DCSF is a structural repricing as of April 1, not a rate increase. Your pricing model determines whether you absorb or pass through. (Part 4)

If you run cross-border auth: the System Integrity Fee on excessive retries jumped 67% on April 25. (Part 5)

Why this gets undercounted: most P&L modeling treats the April scheme fee invoice as a single variance line. The four mechanics sit across different functions (commercial card, cobrand, acquirer pricing, auth strategy), and those teams don't usually compare notes month to month.

CMSPI estimates the aggregate merchant-side impact at around $3 billion. The issuer-side and acquirer-side exposure isn't a clean inverse of that number. The lines that move depend on which side of the ecosystem you sit on.

Steven Leitman

Steven Leitman is Managing Partner of Consulting Resource Group (CRG), a payments consulting and platform firm that helps issuers, acquirers, and BIN sponsors improve profitability through network (scheme) fee optimization, interchange economics, and disciplined cost governance. CRG's Payment Economics practice (CardTraq) includes a suite of platforms designed to manage Visa and Mastercard network fees, interchange performance, and ongoing network rule changes. CRG works with some of the largest global issuers and acquirers.

His work focuses on the economics beneath card programs: Visa and Mastercard network (scheme) fees, pricing structures, interchange qualification, and the hidden cost drivers that materially impact P&L. A core theme is making network compliance measurable and continuous, with data structures, governance models, and platforms that provide ongoing visibility into compliance-driven cost, risk, and fee leakage rather than relying on one-off interpretation exercises.

Steven brings hands-on experience from senior roles at Visa, American Express, and Deloitte Strategy. He publishes regularly on LinkedIn on Visa and Mastercard fee changes, interchange reform, and network compliance.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-leitman/
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Cross-border fees aren't rising. They're fragmenting into smaller tolls.