Electronic transactions

To all members of the New Zealand Retailers Association and New Zealand Merchant Payment Forum:

In this email you will find a link to position statements that have been signed off by Visa and MasterCard respectively. We felt that there was a certain amount of confusion in the market place around what transactions would carry an interchange fee and which ones wouldn’t. This was going to be further confused as new products came to market and we felt it was most important that all of our members had a clear understanding of the market reality.

Consequently we met with both Visa and MasterCard and at the conclusion of those meetings we drafted the attached statements and requested that the two companies confirm our understanding and agree to us sharing the information with you. This has been achieved.

The key highlight is that for face to face debit transactions we will continue to operate as we do at the moment – the transactions will be processed through the cheque or savings button and there will be no interchange. Where contactless technology is introduced there will be an interchange fee but only for those transactions processed this way.

Obviously this market is going to continue to change and  develop, and new products and functionality will continue to evolve. We will continue to keep a close eye on such developments and will make sure we keep you in the loop. In the meantime you will be able to continue to operate without interchange for domestic eftpos, Visa Debit, and when it is launched MasterCard Debit. It is worth pointing out that for these face to face transactions we are one of only a couple of countries that has this “fee free’ status for debit transactions.

Regards,

John Albertson
CEO