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08/12/2009 -
Following outcry from merchants and industry groups about increases in payment processing rates and a potentially unfair entry of MasterCard and Visa into the debit card market, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty recently released a voluntary code of conduct for the debit and credit card processing industry - a move that the Canadian Federation of Independent Business says is laudable, but not enough.In an article for the Financial Post, Dan Kelly - senior vice president of legislative affairs for the CFIB – appealed to credit card issuers and processors as well as large banks to put off any changes to the Canadian payment processing market during the 60-day consultation period for the voluntary code.
"The planned changes to debit are significant and the Canadian success story of Interac is too important to lose," Kelly wrote, referring to the low, flat rate Interac currently offers as the country's dominant debit card processing network. "So, getting the rules of the game in place first is extremely important."
Kelly also asked "all players quickly adopt and implement the final code in the weeks ahead."
Visa and MasterCard have indicated that they plan to enter the Canadian debit card market soon, and many merchants worry that unfair priority routing will raise their payment processing costs because of the brands' premium cards.
