, Australia

Australia mulls requiring banks to offer lower-cost debit payment systems: report

Federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg has written to regulators to allow businesses to choose cheaper domestic systems.

Australia’s treasurer has written to the central bank to possibly mandate large and medium-sized banks, as well as debit card issuers to allow businesses to choose cheaper domestic payment network systems for their debit payments, reported Reuters.

In a letter dated 30 August and addressed to the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), Josh Frydenberg threw the government's weight behind "least-cost routing", which would allow businesses to choose cheaper domestic systems instead of the more expensive Visa and Mastercard networks.

Business groups had been advocating for the RBA to require multi-network cards that could process payments via the lowest-cost networks.

"Least-cost routing means providing small business access to cheaper domestic debit payments schemes... rather than requiring transactions fees to only go through the far more expensive international providers," National Retail Association CEO Dominique Lamb said in a statement.

Here’s more from Reuters.

Follow the link s for more news on

Join Asian Banking & Finance community
Since you're here...

...there are many ways you can work with us to advertise your company and connect to your customers. Our team can help you dight and create an advertising campaign, in print and digital, on this website and in print magazine.

We can also organize a real life or digital event for you and find thought leader speakers as well as industry leaders, who could be your potential partners, to join the event. We also run some awards programmes which give you an opportunity to be recognized for your achievements during the year and you can join this as a participant or a sponsor.

Let us help you drive your business forward with a good partnership!

Exclusives

Private fund tokens may be the future of investing
Kinexys seeks to keep a token’s sensitive financial information from prying eyes.
More tax perks could drive Philippine SMEs to go ‘green’
The Southeast Asian nation’s 1.1 million small businesses can be a target for green loans. 
Asia struggles with G20 payment targets
The ultimate goal is for cross-border payments to achieve “the speed of the internet.”