The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) released a proposed change to the regulation of EFTPOS interchange fees in September 2009. The proposal is to regulate EFTPOS interchange fees, currently a band of between 4 to 5 cents to the acquirer, with that currently applying to scheme debit, notably a cap of 12 cents to the issuer. No actual change to EFTPOS interchange fees is proposed, merely the regulatory framework. As noted by the RBA, “the change does not imply that interchange fees in the different systems should be equal, only that they are subject to equivalent regulation”. The draft Standard and a consultation paper can be found at www.rba.gov.au.
On 23 October 2009, APCA made a submission to the RBA on the proposed changes. The APCA submission broadly supported the principle of regulatory parity contained within the RBA proposal, though APCA maintains its general view that interchange fee regulation inhibits rather than promotes competitive efficiency within the Australian payments system, and should eventually be removed. The APCA submission also raised a number of issues concerning the current bilateral nature of EFTPOS interchange fees arrangements that the regulator needed to be mindful of in finalising its regulatory response.
The APCA submission is available at www.apca.com.au.
Department of Human Services Discussion Paper released for comment
On 14 September 2009, the Minister for Human Services, Chris Bowen MP, released the Better Dealings with Government: Innovation in Payments and Information Services Discussion Paper.
As noted in the Paper’s FAQ - “The purpose of this discussion paper is to invite comment from industry on innovative ways of delivering government payments and collecting and sharing required information such as customer change of address. Feedback will inform the Government’s thinking about how to improve future payment and information services in the Human Services Portfolio.” The Human Services Portfolio includes both Centrelink and Medicare, and is a major user of the direct entry system, cheques and, increasingly, cards.
The Discussion Paper and related material can be found at www.humanservices.gov.au.
Submissions to the Discussion Paper are due on Friday 30 October 2009.
Inquiry into cybercrime
APCA lodged a submission with the House Standing Committee on Communications inquiry into the nature and incidence of cybercrime in Australia on 21 August 2009.
The terms of reference for the inquiry were wide, looking at the nature and instances of crime perpetrated on-line. APCA’s submission welcomed the inquiry and noted that the payments industry was actively engaged in fraud prevention measures, including on-line card fraud in the form of card not present fraud. APCA noted the importance of its publication of fraud data in order to promote efficient fraud prevention efforts.
APCA expressed the view that the inquiry needed to consider how to promote better understanding of cybercrime through identification of other cybercrime typologies, and, having established this, investigate ways to prevent this type of fraud. It was suggested that such measures would be enhanced by the collection of accurate data.
APCA subsequently appeared at a Senate Hearing to answer questions on APCA’s fraud prevention activities.
More information about the Inquiry including submissions and transcripts can be found here.