Reuters
Britain’s payments regulator on Wednesday provisionally proposed a cap on cross-border interchange fees on retailers and other businesses charged by Mastercard (MA.N) and Visa (V.N) on transactions made between the UK and European single market.
The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) said a cap would protect businesses from overpaying, after it published interim findings of a market review on interchange fees charged since Brexit, when the bloc’s longstanding cap ceased to apply in Britain.
UK lawmakers had piled pressure on the PSR to consider re-introducing a cap in Britain, and the watchdog said last year it would conduct two market reviews, but that an outcome could take years.
The PSR said the review focused on charges set by Mastercard and Visa, as they account for 99% of debit and credit card payments in the UK.
The watchdog said both companies had likely raised fees to an “unduly high level”, costing UK businesses an extra 150-200 million pounds ($190-250 million) last year due to fee increases, with the charges potentially passed on to consumers.