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Agents asked to report evidence of credit card rule breaches
ABTA has received a reply to its letter to the Treasury in January asking for an ‘urgent and thorough review’ of credit card fees following the introduction of the Interchange Fee Regulation (IFR).
In what the association has described as a ‘constructive letter’, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, John Glen MP, says he recognised that retailers could incur additional costs and affirmed his commitment to ensure that the financial services industry delivers for small businesses, as well as consumers.
He acknowledged ABTA’s concerns about the IFR, which intended to tackle the high charges made by banks and other merchant providers to process card payments.
ABTA wrote to the Treasury to point out that, while regulation succeeded in capping the interchange fee at 0.2% for debit cards and 0.3% for credit cards, it would appear that other fees have been increased or introduced that have minimised or wiped out retailer savings in relation to overall card charges.
The minister said he had instructed officials to continue to engage with the industry and the Payment Services Regulator (PSR) to assess the impact of the IFR.
The PSR has also been in touch with ABTA to request evidence of breaches.
ABTA members are asked to report instances of breaches, such as non-compliance of IFR rates; lack of transparency; failure to provide information on interchange fees at transactional level and evidence of increases in other charges within the merchant service fee (such as scheme fees).
ABTA chief executive Mark Tanzer said: "We welcome the commitment by Minister Glen for his department to work with industry and the PSR, to assess the effectiveness of the IFR.
"We’re encouraging members to share evidence with us of violations of the Interchange Regulation, so we can pass this onto the PSR to investigate."
Evidence can be sent to: [email protected]
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Lisa
Lisa joined Travel Weekly nearly 25 years ago as technology reporter and then sailed around the world for a couple of years as cruise correspondent, before becoming deputy editor. Now freelance, Lisa writes for various print and web publications, edits Corporate Traveller’s client magazine, Gateway, and works on the acclaimed Remembering Wildlife series of photography books, which raise awareness of nature’s most at-risk species and helps to fund their protection.
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