The UK’s Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has announced it will be conducting a review into the supply of card-acquiring services.
This review is being completed due to concerns ‘this market may not be working well for merchants, and ultimately consumers.’ To support this new evaluation, the regulator has drafted the terms of reference for the market review, which are open for consultation until 14 September 2018.
A merchant needs to purchase a card-acquiring service to enable it to accept debit and credit card payments from consumers. The card-acquiring services accept and process card payments for the merchant and after the transaction they transfer the funds to the merchant.
Some stakeholders have raised concerns over the supply of card-acquiring services are not supporting all merchants. To combat this, the regulator will examine competition in the supply of these services and outcomes of the competitive process. This includes the fees merchants pay to use the card-acquirers.
Following the review of comments made to the terms of reference draft, the regulator will launch the final version by the end of the year.
Following this, the PSR will publish an interim report which will disclose its analysis and preliminary conclusions for consultation. The final report outlining and confirming findings and any potential actions will follow suit.
Copyright © 2018 RegTech Analyst
Copyright © 2018 RegTech Analyst
