Payments Giants Face Crackdown By UK Regulator
(21 May 2024 – United Kingdom) The payments regulator in the United Kingdom (UK) has proposed new regulations which will require Visa and Mastercard to disclose more information about the fees they charge merchants for using their systems.
Both of the global payment’s majors account for 95 percent of all debit and credit card payments in the UK, and regulators recently found that while both card networks had increased their fees by 30 percent over the last five years, there had been no material increase to the quality of service provided.
The proposal follows a string of complaints about fees from merchants and retailers in the UK, in addition to citing a lack of competition in the sector. The two payments companies say that their fees reflect the true value of their services, citing increased investment in cybersecurity and network resilience in recent years.
“Our fees reflect the immense value that we provide to financial institutions, merchants and consumers, including extremely high levels of security, near-perfect operational resilience, and a wide range of consumer protections and high-quality products and services that serve consumer and merchant needs” Visa commented in a statement.
“Every time someone uses a Mastercard or Visa card, UK businesses have to pay fees.” said PSR’s Managing Director Chris Hemsley. “These fees have significantly increased over recent years, and those increases cannot be explained by improvement in service quality.”
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