The news: Fiserv is getting ready to sell one of its two debit networks to streamline its business, CEO Takis Georgakopoulos said at a conference, and whoever buys it could influence debit economics for merchants and smaller issuers alike.

How we got here: After a bruising series of underperforming quarters and legal troubles, Georgakopoulos has turned to simplifying the business to turn Fiserv around. 

Since taking over the top job from Mike Lyons in June, he’s eliminated 10,000 middle manager jobs, initiated a company-wide portfolio review to evaluate which businesses are not core to the company’s new “go-forward strategy,” and identified segments to sell off, per the company’s Q3 earnings call.

Now, Fiserv is migrating its clients onto one of its debit rails to sell the other network if a suitable buyer can be found. If not, Fiserv will shutter the network.

Implications for merchants: If one debit network is wound down, that’s one fewer option for issuers and merchants to route debit transactions.

However, the most disruptive outcome would be a big bank acquiring one of Fiserv’s debit rails. And there’s early interest from JPMorganChase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and PNC; the banks sat down with Fiserv this summer to discuss buying a debit rail, per the Wall Street Journal. 

The Durbin Amendment caps debit interchange for banks with over $10 billion in assets—but only when those transactions run over someone else’s network. After Capital One acquired Discover (and the Pulse debit network), its peers likely wanted to earn more interchange revenues by having their own in-house network.

If more banks take control of debit rails, they could slowly raise merchants’ debit swipe fees in the absence of more competition. These sellers can’t box out all cardholders linked to a major bank that owns its own debit rail, locking them into higher fees.

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