Since when does Mastercard / Visa care about minor backlash like this and why would they? Most of the hysteria died down pretty quickly, and it's not like people were going to boycott the biggest payment processors by far.
>“We’re already fully compliant with the new Mastercard rules, so that had no bearing on the decision,” he said.
https://www.ft.com/content/7b8ce71c-a87a-440e-9f3d-58069ca04...
> “We’re already fully compliant with the new Mastercard rules, so that had no bearing on the decision,”
Reading between the lines, that could easily mean "We're already fully compliant with MC's rules but they still won't let the banks do business with us, so we needed to put publish pressure on MC"