Update on availability and enablement of least-cost routing for merchants Data as at December 2023 (published February 2024)

This is an archived update on the availability and enablement of Least-cost Routing as at December 2023. For the most recent update, see: Update on availability and enablement of least-cost routing for merchants.

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).

Card-present LCR

Table 1: Least-cost Routing of Card-present
Debit Card Transactions
Per cent of merchants, December 2023(a)
  Available to merchants Enabled for merchants(b)
Square 100 100
Stripe 98 98
Suncorp Bank 100 67
Tyro 100 65
Fiserv 100 47
Commonwealth Bank 97 47
National Australia Bank 100 47
Westpac 100 40
ANZ Worldline 98 31
Adyen 100 23
Total 99 65

(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) 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.

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 December 2023, 65 per cent of merchants had LCR enabled for card-present transactions. In August 2023, the Board communicated that it expects providers to make faster progress on enabling LCR for merchants that could benefit from it. If providers do not make substantial progress by June 2024, the Bank will explore a formal regulatory requirement to enable LCR.

Card-not-present LCR

Table 2: Least-cost Routing of Card-not-present
Debit Card Transactions
Per cent of merchants, December 2023(a)
  Available to merchants Enabled for merchants(b)
Stripe 100 68
Fat Zebra 100 32
Adyen 100 7
Fiserv 100 2
Westpac 100 0
Commonwealth Bank(c) 53 7
National Australia Bank 15 0
ANZ Worldline 0 0
Braintree 0 0
SecurePay 0 0
Suncorp Bank 0 0
Tyro 0 0

(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.
(b) 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.
(c) Revised September 2024.

Source: RBA

As at December 2023, some providers had made LCR widely available for online transactions but other providers had more work to do. The take-up of online LCR by merchants remained low for most providers. Following its August 2023 meeting, the Board reiterated that it expects providers to make LCR widely available for online transactions and also noted that it expects faster progress on 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.