I'd really love to see an explanation of the structure of the credit card / payments industry in terms of what roles different corporations play, who are the ma

I'd really love to see an explanation of the structure of the credit card / payments industry in terms of what roles different corporations play, who are the major players in each role, and how they make money. I understand there are networks like Visa, which seem to basically administer account number namespaces and perform some role in clearing payments between banks and merchants. There are also payment processors, who contract with those networks and provide services (card scanners, online payments, etc) to merchants. And there are lending banks, who pay the merchants (via their processors, I guess) and bill the consumer as they would for any loan. My guess is that at one or more levels of this industry, there is an effective cartel: if you want to offer a credit card that's better for merchants, or consumers, or just run more efficiently, you're unlikely to be able to buy your way in. It does seem ludicrous that 1% to 3% of your purchases (or, from the merchant's side, revenue) goes somewhere into Visaland instantly; this seems like a massive privatized tax in return for administering an electronic payments system which might not be that difficult to replace today.