News reports that Fiserv has hawked a debit network to a handful of U.S. banks whipped up speculation of a sale Tuesday, but there was serious skepticism about such a transaction.

The payments processor was said to be talking to banks interested in potentially buying Fiserv’s Star or Accel debit network to increase their interchange fee revenue, according to The Wall Street Journal and a Reuters piece that followed, citing unnamed sources, prompting reports from other news outlets. 

Banks could use a debit network to boost interchange fee revenue, arguing that they wouldn’t be subject to the Durbin Amendment in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that caps debit fees.

Nonetheless, analysts and consultants immediately cast doubt on the logic for banks in pursuing such a purchase, and even the benefit to Fiserv of selling the assets.

There’s an argument to be made that the debit networks are a key part of Fiserv’s business and therefore wouldn’t be smart to discard, even if company executives are under pressure from some activist investors to shed assets, said Ron Shevlin, the chief research officer for consulting firm Cornerstone Advisors. 

In addition, even if such an arrangement passed muster with regulators, merchants would likely push back on paying the higher debit interchange fees to a big bank that might buy the network, he said.

Finally, the “real deal-killer,” would be that Visa, the largest U.S. card network, would likely reverse any discounts across the entire credit and debit card portfolio for any big bank, such as JPMorgan Chase, that sought to extract the debit business, Shevlin said in an interview Tuesday.

The banks that engaged in the preliminary talks included JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and PNC Financial Services Group, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Fiserv provides technology services to financial institutions in addition to processing services for merchants.

The news report also noted that at least some of the banks had already determined they were unlikely to proceed.

“First, we doubt this happens,” analysts at the investment firm Robert W. Baird said in a note to clients Monday. “Fraud, lost incentives, risk of consumer pushback could make it prohibitive.”

Similarly, analysts at the financial firm TD Cowen told clients in a Tuesday report: “We debate the potential given notable hurdles.”

The possibility of the Fiserv network sale has cropped up in the wake of the big bank Capital One Financial purchasing its own debit network, called Pulse, by way of its acquisition of Discover Financial Services, a transaction that was completed last year.

In any case, the analyst reports also noted that if the sale were to happen, Visa and Mastercard might be negatively impacted after whichever bank made the purchase moved business away from the networks to their own newly acquired debit network.

A spokesperson for Fiserv declined to comment.

To the extent that Fiserv is considering new moves, it could reflect the thinking of a new CEO. The company last month named Takis Georgakopoulos to the top post after Mike Lyons resigned to become CEO at Truist Bank.

Interestingly, the CEO of rival processor Fidelity National Information Services has been brainstorming potential new uses for its debit network with banks. 

FIS owns the NYCE Payments Network, allowing its bank clients to enable money transfers via cards used by consumers. 

FIS CEO Stephanie Ferris suggested in May that the market’s changed dynamics has prompted new strategic considerations about the company’s network.  

In answering a question at an investor conference, Ferris noted the value of owning a network, but also expressed openness to working with banks to discover new possibilities.

“I have no interest in selling my network, but I do think there’s really interesting things to do with my network, and we’ve been talking to various banks about that,” Ferris said, without elaborating. “It really depends on what banks want to do with their networks.”

“I think Capital One is an interesting first play, and we’ll see if some of the other banks want to do something with networks,” she added, at JPMorgan’s Annual Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference.