Media Release Review of Retail Payments Regulation – Issues Paper

Following discussion at the November meeting of the Payments System Board, the Bank has released an Issues Paper as the first stage of its Review of Retail Payments Regulation, which will take place over the coming year. The Issues Paper discusses and seeks stakeholder views on a number of potential issues that could be covered by the Review, including some recommendations made in reports by the Productivity Commission and the Black Economy Taskforce in relation to interchange fees, merchant service fees and least-cost routing of dual-network debit card transactions. The Issues Paper also discusses surcharging and ‘no-surcharge’ rules, and issues relating to digital wallets and tokenisation of payments.

While some of the issues identified directly relate to the Bank's card payments regulation, the Review is intended to be more wide-ranging and to consider whether there are potential gaps in the payments system that should be addressed, as well as whether there are any potential regulatory issues arising outside of the narrower topic of card payments. Stakeholders are invited to provide written submissions in response to these issues, as well as to raise any other retail payments matters that they think the Board should consider as part of the Review.

The closing date for submissions is 31 January 2020.