Since their establishment in the 1960s, open payment systems or, as they are often called, “four-party” payment systems, have delivered immense value to all constituents in the payments chain. These systems enable any bank, anywhere in the world, to link its customers (cardholders or merchants) with those of any other bank to transact business via payments cards, almost instantaneously.

Interchange is a small fee paid by a merchant’s bank (also known as the acquiring bank) to the cardholder’s bank (the issuing bank) to compensate the issuing bank for a portion of the risks and costs it incurs. Here, you’ll find the resources you need to understand interchange and the role it plays in balancing costs in the system and promoting a strong, competitive payments industry.

What You Need to Know
Learn more about interchange and the benefits of the system it helps support:
Interchange Backgrounder (227 KB PDF) Interchange Facts and Myths (110 KB DOC) Interchange and the Electronics Payments System (Downloadable audio file) Behind a Transaction (Windows Media File)
Impact of Regulation in Australia
Learn how interchange rules imposed by the Reserve Bank of Australia had negative consequences for competition and consumers:
CRA International Report on Regulatory Intervention in the Payment Industry by the Reserve Bank of Australia 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)
Views on Interchange
What They're Saying ... Benefits of Electronic Payments and Interchange,
(25 KB PDF) Letter from National Black Chamber of Commerce to
Congressman Barney Frank, October 8, 2009 (23 KB PDF) 'Cards Only' Merchants Break From Anti-Interchange Pack
American Banker, August 7, 2009 (13 KB PDF) Antitrust Exemptions for Merchants' Empty Promises?
Shawn Miles, MasterCard Group Head, Global Public Policy, June 6, 2009 (50 KB PDF) Credit Cards and Small Business: The Benefits, Opportunities and Policy Debate, Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, March 2009 (162 KB PDF) Why the Market Should Set Credit Card Interchange Fees/Bank Accounting and Finance, October/November 2008 (101 KB PDF) Enter the Pricing Mandarins/Digital Transactions, July 2008 (69 KB PDF)