Lucrative charges to method card transactions are to be capped under a proposal by the European Union’s boss arm aspiring to draw a line under a decade-long assault with fee groups such as Visa Europe and MasterCard.
Under a preliminary European Commission plan, seen by the Financial Times, a ceiling would be introduced for allegations on all buyer debit and borrowing card transactions, scaling back a multibillion-euro revenue stream for EU banks.
The measure halts short of a full ostracise on debit-card fees, a more far-reaching intervention envisaged in previous drafts. Even so, the assault on charges will be a impediment for the payments commerce, which has alerted it will lift banking fees for buyers rather than cut retail charges.
In supplement, the draft plan needs fee card designs and the entities that method transactions to be lawfully divided — a compelled split that would remake the enterprise form for the main payment assemblies.
Brussels’ recourse to guideline, an topic on both sides of the Atlantic, marks the climax of years of trench warfare between EU competition administration and the fee providers, which produced in pacts with Visa and MasterCard to limit cross-border transaction fees.
Cross-Border Transaction Fees, Debit-Card Fees, Card-Transaction Charges, Borrowing Card Transactions, Visa Europe, MasterCard