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Written question asked by Madeleine Moon (Labour) on Tuesday, 14 March 2017, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 16 March 2017. It was answered by Simon Kirby (Conservative) on Wednesday, 22 March 2017 on behalf of the Treasury.

Credit Cards: Fees and Charges

Question

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the number of (a) airline and (b) other companies that charge over the 0.3 per cent cap for credit card transactions.

Answer

The Payment Systems Regulator is responsible for monitoring compliance with the Interchange Fee Regulation in the UK and for taking enforcement action where appropriate. Government has therefore not made an analysis of the number of companies that do not comply with the Regulation.

The Interchange Fee Regulation (IFR) caps the fees that a merchant acquirer can be charged by a card issuing bank at 0.2% and 0.3% for debit and credit cards respectively. This cost can be passed on to consumers through the practice of surcharging. The Government recently closed a consultation on how the revised Payment Services Directive should be implemented in the UK. One of the provisions in the Directive is a ban on merchants surcharging cards regulated under the IFR.

The interchange fee is part of the merchant service charge that a merchant pays to its bank or merchant acquirer to process its card transactions

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
67778
Session
2016-17
Related items
Bank Cards: Fees and Charges
Monday, 24 April 2017
Written questions
House of Commons
Government Departments: Credit Cards
Monday, 24 April 2017
Written questions
House of Commons
Transferred
Yes
Subjects
Credit cards Fees and charges
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk