Payments System Board Consultation on a Draft Guidance Note for the Varied Surcharging Standards June 2012

In June, the Reserve Bank announced its decision to vary the Standards relating to merchant surcharging on credit and scheme debit cards. The variation allows card scheme rules to limit surcharges to the reasonable cost of card acceptance, while at the same time ensuring that merchants can fully recover their card acceptance costs. The varied Standards will come into force on 1 January 2013.

During consultation some parties expressed a desire for clarification of the meaning of ‘the reasonable cost of acceptance’ in the varied Standards. The Bank is therefore giving consideration to publishing a guidance note. The intention of the guidance note would be to help clarify the types of costs that the Bank considers to be part of the merchant's reasonable cost of card acceptance. It would make clear that, at a minimum, the reasonable cost of acceptance includes the merchant service fee, but it may also include a range of other costs. A link to the draft Guidance Note is below