Every basis point counts; and small shifts in scheme fees can cost merchants millions. Complex scheme fees are regularly updated and introduced to the payments industry; meanwhile, merchants are balancing costs and acceptance rates. Recent updates in April 2026 could cost merchants up to $107 million in Europe and $93 million in Australia through new or increased token, cross-border and market development fees.

Token Fees

Token-related fees from Visa are also being introduced or expanded outside the U.S., including card-present token fees in Australia and card-not-present token fees in parts of Europe.^1,2 Under these new fee structures, CMSPI estimates a cost impact of $51 million in Europe and $5.75 million in Australia. These changes are most relevant for merchants based or operating in Europe and Australia; even more so, they are relevant for merchants with significant digital wallet usage and tokenized transactions, as schemes continue to expand pricing around token infrastructure and related services.

Cross-Border Fees

Cross-border commerce continues to represent a meaningful share of online transactions, with cross-border e-commerce accounting for roughly 20% of global online sales and more than half of global shoppers purchasing from merchants outside their home country.³

In April, Mastercard is expected to increase their Cross-Border Fee in Australia to 1.15% from 0.75% – a 53% increase, this fee structure is estimated to have an additional cost impact of $87.3 million.

Visa and Mastercard are also expected to update their non-domestic currency fees across Europe. Europe has seen a steady and significant increase in cross-border fees in recent years, particularly following Brexit. While the latest round of increases is narrower in scope and has a more limited impact, there continues to be an upward trend in cross-border fee structures across the region.⁴

Market Development Fees

Market development fees,⁵ referred to in Visa’s pricing as Innovation and Market Development fees (IMD), are included within broader scheme fee structures charged by card schemes. These fees form part of scheme pricing frameworks and contribute to activities such as infrastructure, innovation, and marketing initiatives,⁶ as reflected in scheme fee schedules where IMD is listed as a distinct fee category and incorporates related marketing contributions. The Market Development Fee has been revised for a select group of European countries, introducing differentiated domestic, intra-regional, and inter-regional rates.⁷ While these fees are typically smaller than interchange or assessment fees, they can contribute to overall cost increases when combined with scheme fee changes. Recent updates to these fees are estimated to represent approximately $53 million in additional costs across affected regions.

Conclusion

The cost impact of scheme fees on merchants varies across regions and sectors. Understanding how the latest fee introductions and increases might influence payment strategies is critical for merchants. Often, more complexity in fees can lead to different interpretations from suppliers on how they are applied. Merchants should be proactive by:

• Forecasting inevitable increases,
• Understanding what’s in their control,
• Prioritizing initiatives to offset increased costs,
• And ensuring changes are correctly passed through.

As fees continue to increase in number and complexity, CMSPI partners with merchants to bring transparency to the payment cost and translate insight into actionable optimization opportunities helping ensure payment strategies remain efficient and fit for growth.

Macro-estimates are using CMSPI’s Merchant Payments Intelligence (MPI) data to inform the analysis. The estimated cost impact for some fees may not be fully representative of the wider population of transactions.