Govt looks to regulate contactless payment fees for retailers msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Keith Srakocic/AP
Unease over the cost to retailers of accepting scheme debit and credit cards has been bubbling for many years.
Banks could have avoided looming regulation of the fees they charge retailers to process credit and debit cards transactions if they had “done the right thing”, Small Business Minister Stuart Nash says. The Government kicked off consultations on regulating merchant fees on card transactions on Thursday, forecasting that would reduce retailers’ costs and in some cases flow on to cheaper goods for consumers – particularly when they are shopping with smaller businesses. Speaking at a book shop at Victoria University in Wellington, Nash said if banks were going to be “proactive” on reducing fees without regulation, then they would probably have done that already.