CMSPI Consultation Response – Reserve Bank of Australia: Review of Retail Payments

A highly proactive regulator, the RBA’s response offers a number of innovative proposals, including increased focus on scheme fees and interchange caps designed to limit the issuance of Single Network Debit Cards.

CMSPI’s response welcomes efforts to introduce greater competition into the payments ecosystem in Australia. However, it also highlights crucial limitations to said competition, with CMSPI estimates suggesting that just 7.32% of annual transaction value is currently eligible for Least Cost Routing. Allowing routing choice over all other transaction types could save Australian merchants an estimated $2.3 billion annually. This is alongside providing crucial support to the domestic card network which, from international experience, can be pivotal in determining merchant bargaining power.