Evidence-based policy. Real economic impact.
Our work is grounded in transaction-level data, peer-reviewed economic research, and real-world case studies showing how lower-cost payment infrastructure strengthens local economies.
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Contribute Fee Data →99.3%
of Hawaiʻi businesses are small businesses
$20.77B
2024 Hawaii visitor spending
$360M—$700M
Estimated annual merchant fees
What The Data Shows
Across jurisdictions, payment costs fall when competition increases, transparency improves, and merchants retain negotiating leverage.
Lower payment costs increase local reinvestment capacity
Multiple studies show that when merchant payment costs fall, retained revenue is reinvested locally through wages, hiring, inventory, and expansion—multiplying economic impact within the community.
Market concentration weakens merchant bargaining power
The U.S. card payments market is highly concentrated. Limited competition among networks and processors reduces pricing transparency and weakens merchant bargaining power—especially in geographically isolated markets like Hawaiʻi.
Transparency enables safer, lower-cost payment systems
Transparent, auditable payment systems reduce fraud, improve compliance, and enable better regulatory oversight. Jurisdictions that prioritize transparency achieve lower risk and stronger consumer protection.
How we evaluate impact in Hawaiʻi
We evaluate payment system impact using real transaction data, merchant-level visibility, and alignment with existing regulatory frameworks.
Real transaction data
We analyze anonymized, aggregated merchant transaction data to identify where fees, intermediaries, and settlement delays create unnecessary costs.
Collective merchant bargaining and visibility
Most Hawaiʻi merchants negotiate payment terms individually while facing the same cost structures. By organizing merchants collectively, we surface shared cost drivers.
Regulatory and policy alignment
We evaluate payment improvements within existing state and federal licensing, consumer protection, and compliance requirements.
Measurable economic outcomes
We focus on outcomes that matter to local businesses: effective fee rates, settlement speed, cash-flow timing, and compliance burden.