New Zealand Commerce Commission agreement with card schemes
Visa and MasterCard have made separate agreements with the New Zealand Commerce Commission on credit card interchange fees and related practices in August 2009.
In the agreements, the international card schemes have agreed to i) enable issuers to set their own interchange fees below a cap determined by the scheme, ii) permit merchant surcharging and iii) enable non-bank entities to offer acquiring services, provided they meet relevant criteria.
More information, including the Visa and MasterCard agreement media releases, can be found at www.comcom.govt.nz.
Canadian Senate Inquiry into Credit and Debit Card Regulation
The Canadian Senate Standing Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce released its report on credit card and debit card regulation in June 2009. The report included a number of recommendations including the creation of a Federal Government 'oversight body' that would:
• further consult on issues such as credit card interchange fees;
• permit merchant 'collective bargaining' on interchange fees, merchant surcharging and prohibiting
'honour-all-card' rules;
• set debit card interchange fees at zero; and
• require issuers to provide additional information on monthly credit card statements.
The Report can be found at www.parl.gs.ca.
United Kingdom Transport Card White Paper
The UK Department for Transport has released a White Paper on a national 'smart and integrated' transport ticketing system. The paper summarises current ticketing initiatives throughout the UK (including the highly successful 'Oyster' card) and proposes a national standards-based approach to ticketing that would leverage of emerging contactless EMV card and NFC mobile technologies.
The White Paper can be found at www.dft.gov.uk.