On November 19, the Minister of Finance announced a proposed voluntary code of conduct governing debit and credit cards. It’s now open for public consultations. More information, including the press release and background information, is below. The focus of the agreement includes:
- Ensuring that merchants are fully aware of the costs associated with accepting credit and debit card payments.
- Providing merchants with increased pricing flexibility to encourage consumers to choose the lowest-cost payment option.
- Allowing merchants to freely choose which payment options they will accept.
As you probably are aware, changes in the debit/credit card industry have created a situation where merchants pay a variety of different fees on the cards, and often the only time that they actually find out is when they get the bill in the mail. Criticism of this from retail groups has helped gestate this.
CSC will be making a submission in this public consultation process. Members will be advised when the document is available on the CSC site.
Government press release is here:
http://www.fin.gc.ca/n08/09-109-eng.asp
Backgrounder is here:
http://www.fin.gc.ca/n08/data/09-109_1-eng.asp
Brief globe story is here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/new-conduct-code-for-credit-debit/article1369712/
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