More regulatory review required.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) may put a stop to excessive credit card surcharges for consumers with new rules that will govern the payments industry, according to MasterCard’s Australian chief executive, Andrew Cartwright.
On Thursday, the RBA revealed its highly anticipated formal response to the issue, mandating that merchants can only pass-on actual costs of accepting card transactions when imposing surcharges, with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) put in charge of investigating inflated fees and policing scammers.
“This affects all Australians and MasterCard is pleased this is being addressed. It’s long overdue,” Cartwright said.
However he cautioned that for the new excess surcharging bans to have a real effect, visible action against rule breakers and effective monitoring needs to be in place fast.
This article first appeared on governmentnews.com.au. Keep reading at: http://www.governmentnews.com.au/2016/05/rba-applies-surcharge-stick/