Visa will change its interchange fees scheme in New Zealand

The New Zealand Commerce Commission has declared that it has "signed an agreement with the Visa International Service Association and Visa Worldwide Pte Limited settling the Commission’s claims against Visa in relation to credit card interchange fees. The Commission’s proceedings allege that the rules of the Visa scheme providing for the payment of multilateral interchange fees, together with related rules, breached the restrictive trade practices provisions of the Commerce Act."

Visa will make the following agreed changes to the way the Visa scheme rules will apply in New Zealand:
Credit card issuers will now be able to individually set the interchange rates that will apply to transactions using their credit cards, subject to maximum rates determined by Visa.
Merchants will no longer be prevented from applying surcharges to payments made by credit cards or by specific types of credit cards. Merchants will also be able to encourage customers to pay by other means.
Visa has confirmed that non-bank organisations or companies who might wish to provide acquiring services to merchants are permitted to join the Visa network as acquirers if they meet relevant financial and prudential criteria.

Moreover, Visa has agreed to contribute NZD 2.6 million towards the Commission’s costs to date in bringing these proceedings. Under the agreement, the Commission will be seeking leave to discontinue its proceedings against Visa in the High Court.

Additionally, the Commission’s claims against ANZ National Bank Limited, Bank of New Zealand, Westpac New Zealand Limited, ASB Bank Limited, Kiwibank and TSB Bank Limited in relation to interchange fees in the Visa scheme continues, as does its claim against those banks, MasterCard and The Warehouse Financial Services Limited in relation to the MasterCard rules. The Commission’s remaining claims will be heard at the High Court in Auckland in October this year.