18th December 2014 

An agreement was reached yesterday between the negotiators of the EU Presidency and European Parliament on the regulation on interchange fees for payment cards.

According to the agreement, interchange fees for consumers will be capped for credit and debit transactions as follows:

    -  Credit card transactions will be capped at 0.3% of the transaction value

    -  Cross-border debit card transactions will be capped at either 0.2% of the transaction value or an optional maximum fixed cap of €0.05c

    -  For domestic debit card transactions, a 5 year transitional period shall apply, during which the cap will be fixed at 0.2% of the weighted average transaction value annually of all domestic transactions within the card scheme. After 5 years, the normal cap referred to above would apply.

However, the scope of the agreement excludes the cap of fees for commercial cards and third-party schemes.

The agreement now needs to be endorsed by the ECON Committee and the plenary session of the European Parliament, before a final approval by the Council. This means it will be likely that the caps will come into effect in autumn 2015, therefore generating substantial savings for hospitality businesses.