(16 March 2017 – Australia) The ANZ Bank has reportedly cut all ties with American Express, following changes to card regulations – which would see banks getting less income from American Express card transactions – and will no longer offer Amex cards.
Under the changes the “interchange fees” that provided revenue to card issuers like ANZ from July will be capped at 0.8 percent of a purchase price.
It’s expected that the cap will offer fee relief to small businesses with East & Partners Merchant Payments report finding small businesses pay almost 20 percent more on average for a transaction than big businesses. Additionally, that report highlights that although businesses merchant service fees have dropped by an average of 11 percent between 2012 and 2017, the Micro business segment has only experienced a slight decrease of 5 percent during that time.
A spokesman for ANZ said the bank had stopped offering American Express “companion cards” with new rewards credit card accounts from March 1.
Existing ANZ customers can keep using their existing ANZ Amex card until 5 August 2017 with no change to the number of rewards points they will earn on eligible purchases.