Update on availability and enablement of least-cost routing for merchants Data as at June 2024 (published August 2024)

To provide greater transparency on the extent to which providers are supporting least-cost routing (LCR), the Bank publishes the tables below on LCR availability and take-up (enablement) across the major acquirers for ‘card-present’ (or in-person transactions) where a physical card is tapped (Table 1) and ‘card-not-present’ (or online transactions) (Table 2). For the avoidance of doubt, those institutions with the highest rates of LCR enablement do not necessarily provide merchants with the lowest overall payment costs.

Card-present LCR

Table 1: Least-cost Routing of Card-present Debit Card Transactions
Per cent of merchants, June 2024(a)
  Available to merchants Enabled for merchants Not enabled for merchants – active merchant choice(b) Not enabled for merchants – active acquirer choice on behalf of merchant(b)
Square 100 100 - -
Stripe 100 98 - -
Tyro 100 83 - -
Suncorp Bank 100 73 19 8
Fiserv 100 54 - -
National Australia Bank 100 52 - -
Commonwealth Bank 97 48 - 14
ANZ Worldline 98 42 16 4
Westpac 100 41 - 25
Adyen 100 27 26(c) -
Total 99 70 1 5

(a) Figures have been rounded to whole percentage points. Consequently, a value of 100 may still mean LCR is not available/enabled for every merchant of that institution. Figures exclude very large (strategic) merchants and merchants that supply their own payment terminals.
(b) An active choice to not enable LCR may be based on (i) price considerations (i.e. routing to the default scheme is already the lowest-cost option, or the cost savings from enabling LCR do not outweigh the implementation costs for the merchant) or (ii) non-price considerations (e.g. a gap in non-price capabilities between the domestic and international schemes).
(c) Data as at December 2023.

Source: RBA

LCR is now widely available to merchants and take-up by merchants has increased over the past year. As at the end of June 2024, 70 per cent of merchants had LCR enabled for card-present transactions. As part of the upcoming Review of Retail Payments Regulation, the Bank will seek stakeholder views on the effectiveness of LCR and whether further regulatory intervention is appropriate. In the meantime, the Bank expects providers to continue enabling LCR for in-person transactions for merchants that could benefit from it and pass the savings on to merchants.

Card-not-present LCR

Table 2: Least-cost Routing of Card-not-present
Debit Card Transactions
Per cent of merchants, June 2024(a)
  Available to merchants Enabled for merchants
Tyro 100 87
Stripe 100 66
Fat Zebra 100 45
Adyen 100 15
Fiserv 100 8
Westpac 100 0
Commonwealth Bank 53 9
National Australia Bank 15 0
ANZ Worldline 0 0
Braintree 0 0
SecurePay 0 0
Suncorp Bank 0 0
Total 90  

(a) Figures have been rounded to whole percentage points. Consequently, a value of 100 may still mean LCR is not available/enabled for every merchant of that institution. A value of 0 may mean LCR is available/enabled for some, but only a very small proportion, of merchants of that institution. Figures exclude very large (strategic) merchants and data relating to merchants where the listed institution only provides gateway services.

Source: RBA

As at June 2024, 6 out of the 12 providers had made LCR available to all their merchants. While progress has been made over the past year, some providers still have much more work to do. The Bank expects providers, including payment gateways, to accelerate progress on making LCR widely available for online transactions and enabling LCR for merchants that could benefit from it.

Background on Least-cost Routing

See: Least-cost Routing of Debit Card Transactions for more information, including details on what the Bank is doing on LCR.

Archived updates

The Bank has started publishing updates on LCR availability and enablement data every 6 months. For previous LCR updates see: LCR Updates.