The European Digital Payments Industry Alliance, Euro Commerce in the EU and The Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec) and the British Retail Consortium (BRC) have undertaken a coordinated effort to call for the reversal of an increase of more than 400% in cross-border interchange fees. They aim for the letter to deliver savings for merchants and consumers and incentivise cross-border commerce and payments innovation.
The hike was made possible by a regulatory loophole following UK’s exit from the EU which enabled card schemes Visa and Mastercard to raise interchange fees by about fivefold. The cost is then passed down to merchants which in turn results in higher prices for goods and services.
