Swipe fee reform around the world: consumers win
While U.S. consumers wait and continue to pay, swipe fee reform is proven to have benefited consumers elsewhere around the world:
Australian Consumers Benefit from Swipe Reform:
Reserve Bank of Australia: “The Board acknowledges that precise quantitative measurement of the aggregate welfare gains from the reforms faces a number of challenges, particularly given the inevitable uncertainties about what would have happened in the absence of the reforms. Notwithstanding this, the Board remains of the view that based on reasonable assumptions, the welfare gains have been significant.”
[Source] http://www.rba.gov.au/payments-system/reforms/review-card-reforms/review-0708-conclusions/br.html
European Consumers Benefit from Swipe Reform:
E.U. Competition Commission: “Firstly, the inquiry’s data suggests that in most cases card issuers would remain profitable with very low levels of interchange fees or even without interchange fees at all. Secondly, the international card networks have failed to substantiate the argument that lower interchange fee would have to be compensated with higher cardholder fees. The evidence gathered during the inquiry rather suggest that the pass-through of higher interchange fees to lower cardholder fees is small.
“Consumers already pay the cost of the interchange fee without knowing it. This cost is now hidden in the final retail price and is therefore non-transparent. Our objective is to improve transparency, so that consumers know how much and when they are paying for a card.”
[Source] http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do reference=MEMO/07/40&format=HTML&aged=1&language=EN&guiLanguage=fr