Brussels, 17/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is considering setting upper limits on multilateral interchange fees (MIFs) for payments using plastic.
These charges are paid by a trader's bank to the bank of the holder of the card used for the payment. The Commission has been keeping an eye on these fees for years now, charged by Mastercard and Visa for use of their inter-bank payment systems.
Initially for cross-border transactions, but then after a two-year transition period also on all transactions across the board, MIFs would be capped at 0.2% for debit card payments and 0.3% for credit card payments, reports Bloomberg.
The European Parliament wants legislation to ensure that MIFs do not create an uneven playing field by creating obstacles to innovation and access to the market for new players (see EUROPE 10735). Going further than the Commission, it wants card payments to be treated in exactly the same way as bank transfers and direct debits under the SEPA system (payments in euro), for which charges are to be phased out by February 2017.
The capping of MIFs will be part of the revision of EU Directive 2007/64 on payment services, which will be unveiled by EU Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier on Wednesday 24 July. The new legislation will include measures to: - level the playing field for payment service providers; - facilitate the emergence of common technical standards and interoperability; - and ensure a high level of consumer protection and of payments security and a robust governance model for retail payments in Europe. A paper on improving the governance of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) will also be unveiled on 24 July. (MB/transl.fl)