Review of Retail Payments Regulation – Issues Paper –
November 2019 Appendix A: Questions for Stakeholders

The Bank is seeking submissions on the issues discussed in this paper, including stakeholder views on some or all the following specific questions.

Q1: What major recent or prospective developments in the broader payments industry are particularly relevant to this review? More specifically, are there any gaps in functionality available to end users or any shortcomings in industry governance or operating arrangements that require regulation or coordinated industry action?

Q2: Are there aspects of retail payments regulation that lead to market distortions or that create opportunities for regulatory arbitrage? If so, what options should be considered as a means of addressing these? Are there gaps in the regulatory regime that need to be addressed or any elements where regulation is no longer required?

Q3: Are there barriers to innovation and/or competition that may affect the costs of or provision of electronic payments and should be addressed in this review?

Q4: How do stakeholders assess the functioning to date of least-cost routing (LCR) of contactless debit card payments? Do additional steps need to be taken regarding LCR to enhance competition and efficiency in the debit card market?

Q5: Have recent and prospective developments in technology changed the case for promoting the continued issuance of dual-network debit cards? What policy actions might be needed to promote competition and efficiency in an environment where single-network cards were more prominent? Alternatively, would it be desirable to mandate (or incentivise through interchange caps) that all debit cards issued enable at least two unaffiliated/competing networks?

Q6: Is there a case for further policy action to enhance competition in the provision of acquiring services to merchants? If so, what form could this action take?

Q7: Is there a case for greater transparency in scheme fee arrangements, including their effect on payment costs? If so, what form should this take?

Q8: Are the existing access regimes working effectively?

Q9: What are the implications of the growing importance of mobile devices and digital platforms for the retail payments system in Australia? Are there issues that arise for the Bank's regulatory regime for card payments or that are relevant to competition, efficiency and risk?

Q10: Is there a case for a further lowering of the credit or debit interchange benchmarks or any change in the way they are applied?

Q11: Should regulation of interchange be extended to inter-regional interchange fees (i.e. interchange fees applying to transactions in Australia using foreign-issued cards)? What is the typical cost of transactions on foreign-issued cards, and how much of this is attributable to interchange fees?

Q12: Is there a case for applying regulation to three-party card systems? What form could this take?

Q13: Is the revised net compensation provision in the interchange standards working effectively?

Q14: What enforcement mechanisms would strengthen observance of the net compensation provision?

Q15: Is the surcharging framework working well? Are there any changes that should be considered?

Q16: Is there a case for policymakers to require that BNPL providers remove any no-surcharge rules, consistent with earlier actions in regard to card systems that applied such rules?

Q17: Are there potential enhancements to the Bank's regulatory powers and enforcement mechanisms that could improve the effectiveness of retail payments regulation?