Of course, the value of the system is that it's a global payment network. If the card brands started cutting out over regulated markets then the system would de

Of course, the value of the system is that it's a global payment network. If the card brands started cutting out over regulated markets then the system would decrease in value for customers in it's main profit centres. The outcome is just that the rest of the world ends up subsiding European payment networks. The negative impact of policies like this isn't that the payment networks will start exiting markets, it's that they just won't innovate. Which is why most of the innovation in the payment industry recently has been in EMIs and in-app payment systems, which are both more expensive and worse for consumers. But all of this is secondary to the point, which is your claim that a 3% processing fee is insane. The way the system works is insane, if you said today that you wanted to build the type of system that the card bands have built, nobody would believe that it would be possible. Especially not all for a 3% processing fee. If the payment networks didn't exist, everything you buy would be a lot more than 3% more expensive, and your quality of life would be very notably reduced. The value you're getting from them is a lot more than what you're paying to use them.