Press Release: Antitrust: European Commission makes Visa Europe’s commitments to cut interbank fees for debit cards legally binding

The European Commission has made legally binding commitments offered by Visa Europe to significantly cut its multilateral interchange fees (MIFs) for debit card payments. The MIF is a bank-to-bank fee for card payments that is collectively fixed by Visa Europe's member banks, but is ultimately paid by consumers. Under the commitments, the maximum weighted average MIF applicable to debit card cross border transactions and to national debit transactions in those countries where MIFs are set directly by Visa Europe will be cut to 0.2% of the value of the transaction. This represents a reduction of about 60% on average for domestic MIFs and 30% for cross-border MIFs. Furthermore, Visa Europe committed to maintain and further develop measures which will increase transparency and competition in the payment cards markets. The Commission considers that the offer is suitable to remedy the competition concerns and closed part of its investigation through a commitments decision according to Article 9 of Regulation 1/2003 (the Antitrust Regulation).

ESO: Background Information: Visa cuts retailers’ debit card charges http://www.europeansources.info/record/visa-cuts-retailers-debit-card-charges/

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