ACS has welcomed the government’s decision to introduce EU measures which will cap the costs retailers currently face when processing debit and credit card payments.
From 9th December, the European Commission’s Interchange Fee Regulation will come into effect which will cap the amount that is charged by banks to card providers to 0.2% on debit cards and 0.3% on credit cards.
ACS chief executive, James Lowman said: “We are pleased that these limits will now be applied to card transactions as we argued strongly in the EU and at the Treasury that limits were required. Around one in five convenience store customers currently pay by card, so placing a cap on retailer’s costs for processing these transactions is necessary for convenience stores.”
The new cap on interchange fees is estimated to save retailers approximately £480million per year.
At present, typical interchange fees can range from around 8p to 11p per debit card transaction and between 0.77% and 1.5% of the transaction value for consumer credit cards.
