Senior Product Manager of Next Generation Payments at PayPal, Nitin Prabhu explains why the online payments industry in the United States is underdeveloped. He explains the complete cycle of payments – from the initial sale to the point of collection. He points out that one of the key differences between the payments industry in the United States and several other countries is the interchange rates. These are the fees charged by issuing banks. Lower interchange fees ensure that merchants receive a higher net amount for the merchandise they’ve sold. The United States has high interchange fees; so the net amount of money that merchants receive is much lower.