EU: MEPs back swipe-fee caps

MEPs have publically backed caps for swipe fees charged by banks to retailers for processing credit cards at the register, say reports.

The European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee has supported such interchange caps on both cross-boarder transactions and domestic transactions. According to officials, such swipe-fees cost retailers billions of dollars every year.

In a statement, the Commission said that the “fees are not transparent and they differ between EU member states, where they are subject not to legislation but to decisions by national competition authorities,” stressing the need for EU-level reform.

The European Commission has proposed a 0.3 percent cap on credit card fees and 0.2 percent on debit card fees.

Further, the Commission has proposed to allow retailers to discriminate between which cards it will accept unless they are all subject to the same interchange fees and comply with the proposed caps.

The new regulations will be subject to a vote by the European Parliament.

The backing comes after Visa has vowed to limit its swipe-fees at the caps proposed by the Commission, following suit with MasterCard.

Full Content: BBR

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