Every business establishes a price for the goods and services it provides, and the electronic payments business is no exception. As one element of the cost of acceptance, interchange is a small fee in relation to the enormous value merchants receive for accepting MasterCard payment cards.

For almost 40 years, MasterCard has established default interchange fees that have proven to be the most efficient way to balance costs in the system and promote a strong, competitive payments industry that benefits cardholders, merchants and financial institutions. Today, some 25,000 financial institutions provide the cards and services that allow hundreds of millions of consumers and 25 million merchants around the world to benefit from the convenience and security of electronic payments.

Learn more about interchange from the information below:
Interchange Backgrounder (227 KB PDF) Interchange Facts and Myths (110 KB DOC) Interchange and the Electronic Payments System (Downloadable audio file) Behind a Transaction (Windows Media File) Interchange Rates

Negative impact of the RBA’s regulation of interchange on consumers and competition:
Interchange Regulation: Lessons Learned from RBA Intervention in Australia (745 KB PDF) Fact Sheet: The Unintended Consequences of the RBA’s Regulation of Interchange (89 KB DOC) The Unintended Consequences of the RBA’s Regulation of Interchange (Downloadable audio file)

Industry Perspectives:
Viewpoints on Electronic Payments, Interchange and Regulation of the Electronic Payments Industry (90 KB DOC) The Wall Street Journal, March 29, 2008
Credit Card Wars The Wall Street Journal Europe, January 11, 2008
Brussels Prices The Wall Street Journal Europe, January 1, 2008
Regulating in the Dark The Wall Street Journal, January 12, 2006
Credit Where it's Due View from Community Bankers (69 KB PDF)