PSR publishes provisional findings of card acquiring market review
Industry News | 15/09/20
The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has published an interim report on its market review into the supply of card-acquiring services. The report shows that merchants could make savings by shopping around and either switching or negotiating with their current provider, but many small and medium sized ones don’t. The report includes several potential remedies to make it easier to search for and switch to a new provider or better deal, including:
• requiring all contracts for card-acquiring services to have an end date, providing merchants with a prompt to shop around;
• requiring changes to point-of-sale (POS) terminal contracts to limit their length, ending contracts that auto-renew, and making it easier to exit POS terminal contracts without incurring exit fees; and
• making it easier for merchants to research and compare prices and options available to them.
The PSR seeks stakeholder feedback on the provisional findings and potential remedies, including on the potential challenges and unintended consequences that may arise from these, other remedies the PSR might consider, and the impact of COVID-19 on the review. This feedback is sought by 8 December 2020.
