IMGCAP(1)]
Australian retailer Woolworths has come out against a proposal to change the country's interchange-rate structure under the Reserve Bank of Australia's payments system reforms, according to comments the retailer has submitted to the bank. Woolworths is against the central bank's proposal to give card companies more self-regulatory powers on credit card interchange rates. The retailer does not think self-regulation on interchange rates will improve competition among card payment systems, according to the submission. One proposal before the bank suggests keeping the rate on credit card transactions at 0.5% of the purchase amount. The bank also could reduce interchange to 0.3% of the sale and the debit card rate to 5 cents per transaction (CardLine Global, 24 April). "There is some disagreement about exactly what self-regulation might look like in the context of the Australian payments system," a Reserve Bank spokesperson tells CardLine Global. "The bank is considering the submissions made to it and the Payments System Board will discuss them at its meeting in mid-August."
