Topic: Growth Stocks

Stock Pickers Digest Hotline – Friday, July 26, 2013

Article Excerpt

AIMIA INC., $15.35, symbol AIM on Toronto, rose as high as $16.63 this week after the Canadian Competition Tribunal dismissed a complaint that Visa Canada and MasterCard impose anti-competitive rules on merchants. Merchants want to place surcharges on consumers’ credit card purchases to offset fees they pay to Visa and MasterCard. Credit card companies and the banks that issue the cards currently split these fees, which range from 1.5% to 3%. The merchants also wanted to be able to choose not to accept premium credit cards, which charge higher fees. The current rules, set by credit card issuers, prohibit merchants from doing either of these things. Visa and MasterCard currently process over 90% of credit card transactions in Canada. TD Bank recently agreed to become the primary credit card issuer for Aeroplan, Aimia’s main loyalty program. The TD deal was important for Aimia, especially since it removed a lot of the uncertainty surrounding the company’s shares as the December 2013…