The latest edition of Oaklen Consulting's Industry Watch highlights the latest developments in the interchange regulation

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• The study commissioned by the European Commission from EY and Copenhagen Economics to assess the impact of the interchange regulation concludes that it has had the desired effect by generating a €2.7 billion reduction in interchange fees at the European level over a full year (i.e. 35% of the amount of interchanges settled in 2015).
  However, less than half of this reduction (€1.2 billion) was passed on to merchants in the form of lower merchant fees.
  Merchants passed on nearly 60% of this decrease (€0.8 billion) to the end consumer in the form of lower prices.
  The study highlights several areas for optimization to achieve a "satisfactory" level of competition on merchant fees, such as monitoring scheme fees or further standardization of protocols and materials to simplify the change of acquirer.
  

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• Eurocommerce does not share the same point of view and considers that:
  - the fees excluded from the regulation (scheme fees, commercial cards, 3 corners system) have been increased by the card schemes with such intensity since 2015 that the benefits of the decrease of the interchanges are strongly questioned
  - the incentives paid to the acquirers and issuers, as well as the sale of Visa Europe constitute "disguised interchanges".
  Eurocommerce would therefore like to see a strengthening of the interchange regulation so that:
  - it covers all the fees charged by the acquirer and not only the interchange
  - the exemptions (commercial cards, 3 corner systems, ...) are removed.

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For more information and the complete watch: contacteznous@oaklen.eu

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