LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s payment systems regulator (PSR) will conduct two market reviews of card fees charged by Visa and Mastercard, the U.S. companies that account for 99% of debit and credit card payments in the UK.
The PSR’s announcement on Tuesday follows heavy pressure from lawmakers to launch full market reviews to tackle card fees paid by retailers, which are typically passed on to consumers.
“We want to understand whether card payments are working well and to make sure that merchants, and ultimately consumers, get a good deal,” said Natalie Timan, the PSR’s head of strategy.
Visa and Mastercard had no immediate comment.
The first review will look at why there was a fivefold post-Brexit increase in the cross-border interchange fee that Mastercard and Visa charged retailers for consumer purchases by phone or online in the European Union, the watchdog said.
The PSR had already said that preliminary inquiries had been unable to find an explanation for the increase based on volumes, value or mix of transactions.
The fee had been capped by an EU agreement that fell away in…
