pc
nid 91955
Apr 16, 2026
kgurnani@vixio.com
Australia
Federal Register of Legislation
horizon scanning
166% of draft length
draft in Generated
Generated
1263 charsAustralia's Treasury Department Implements Merchant Card Payment Costs and Surcharging Variation
On April 14, 2026, Australia's Department of the Treasury brought into force the Payment Systems (Regulation) Standards (Merchant Card Payment Costs and Surcharging) Variation 2026 under the Payment Systems (Regulation) Act 1998.
The variation amends the Payment Systems (Regulation) Standards to address merchant card payment costs and surcharging practices. This development affects merchants, payment service providers, and card payment systems operating in Australia. The variation establishes or modifies standards governing how merchants may be charged for accepting card payments and the conditions under which surcharges can be applied to consumers using card payment methods.
The legislative instrument came into force on April 14, 2026, and is now in effect. The variation is administered by the Department of the Treasury and is registered as F2026L00434 in the Federal Register of Legislation. Merchants and payment system operators should review the updated standards to ensure compliance with the new requirements regarding payment costs and surcharging arrangements.
REFERENCES:
Payment Systems (Regulation) Standards (Merchant Card Payment Costs and Surcharging) Variation 2026, Federal Register of Legislation, https://www.legislation.gov.au/
Agent draft
Not run yet.
Published
2093 charsAustralia's Treasury Department Implements Merchant Card Payment Costs and Surcharging Variation
On April 14, 2026, Australia's Department of the Treasury brought into force the Payment Systems (Regulation) Standards (Merchant Card Payment Costs and Surcharging) Variation 2026 under the Payment Systems (Regulation) Act 1998 . The variation introduces significant amendments to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s card payment standards, with effect from 1 October 2026, aimed at tightening controls on interchange fees, increasing pricing transparency, and strengthening reporting obligations across credit, debit and prepaid card schemes.
The key changes include:
New interchange fees: Interchange fees on domestic consumer credit cards capped at 0.3%, commercial credit cards capped at 0.8%, fees on domestic debit and prepaid caps reduced to 8 cents or 0.16 percent of transaction value, and new international interchange fees introduced at 1%.
Removal of card surcharging: The instrument allows designated card schemes (eftpos, Visa and Mastercard) to impose no-surcharge rules, effectively enabling the elimination of surcharges on debit and credit card transactions.
Standardisation of fee structures: Interchange fees must be a fixed amount or single percentage, and there will prohibition on fee ranges across transaction categories.
Expansion of scope: Explicit inclusion of international card transactions, overseas merchant transactions, and modern payment practices (tokenised, card-present vs card-not-present transactions).
Regular reporting: Introduction of quarterly reporting requirements to the regulator, including mandatory public disclosure of interchange fees, scheme fees, rebates, and transaction values.
These standards have a range of effective dates:
Removal of card surcharging and the new interchange fees for domestically issued cards are effective by October 1, 2026.
Card schemes must provide information to the RBA to enable monitoring of compliance with interchange fee caps, scheme fee transparency requirements, and the new regulatory standards by October 31, 2026.
New interchange cap fees on foreign-issued cards are effective by April 1, 2027.