The Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have decided that both cross-border and domestic card payments fees that banks charge retailers for processing purchases payments should be capped.
As per the European Commission figures, banks’ card payment fees cost EU retailers over 10bn annually.
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MEPs supported the European Commission’s proposal to cap the bank’s fee at 0.3% of the transaction value for credit card transactions, while amended the proposed cap to 7 euro cents, or 0.2% of the transaction value, whichever is the lower, for debit card transactions.
The new caps are likely to come into effect a year after the implementation of the new payment rules in the eurozone.
According to the new rules, retailers can accept card payments of their choice, only if they are subject to the same interchange fee and are compliant with the set cap.
The committee found that the fees charged by banks belonged to schemes such as Visa and MasterCard, were not transparent and are subject to decisions by national competition authorities.
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By GlobalDataThe rules are now subject to a full house vote, which will take place at one of the upcoming parliamentary sessions.
