Card Industry: First Clues on Mallié Commission
- The first proposals listed in Mallié investigation report on the transparency of acceptors’ fees (MSC) are centred on three main objectives:
- Favour the use of bank cards and reduce transaction costs through:
- Setting a cap of a few euro cents for fee minima,
- Decreasing the CB interchange (CIP) by 50%, TICO excepted,
- Proposing entry-level offers for merchants with low card activity,
- Adapting fees to small amount transactions,
- Talking acquirers into subsidising POS contactless adaptation.
- Improve acquirers transparency regarding their pricing:
- Publishing information on the calculation mode,
- Issuing an annual standardised statement detailing these fees (RAFEC).
- Reduce the telecommunication price charged on merchants, and make mandatory to acquirers to propose an alternative, IP-based communication channel.
- The recommended decrease of the CIP and its repercussion on “CB” acceptance fee (MSC) is directly based on the concessions obtained by Brussels from MasterCard and Visa. In France, this coincides with the commitments proposed by CB banks to the ACP. Players of the French market are currently testing them.
- Mallié’s other measures by far exceed any other intervention of a national legislator in the payment sector (except for the 2000 interchange reform in Australia). We now have to wait and see if France will go further than European law, as was the case for the transposition of the 2008 Consumer Credit Directive by LAGARDE act.
See January and March 2011 Watches