Are scheme fees regulated?
Not by price. The UK PSR found in March 2025 that competition does not constrain Visa and Mastercard scheme fees and issued directions on fee transparency and pricing governance, without a cap. The European Commission reopened questions about scheme fees in 2025. The EU Interchange Fee Regulation caps interchange only.
In detail
Not by price. The UK PSR found in March 2025 that competition does not constrain Visa and Mastercard scheme fees and issued directions on fee transparency and pricing governance, without a cap. The European Commission reopened questions about scheme fees in 2025. The EU Interchange Fee Regulation caps interchange only.
What are scheme fees and how are they different from interchange?
Interchange is set by the scheme but paid to the issuer; in the EU it is capped at 0.2% for consumer debit and 0.3% for consumer credit. Scheme fees are set by the scheme and paid to the scheme, by the acquirer.
What are regulators doing about scheme fees in 2025 and 2026?
In the EU, the Interchange Fee Regulation capped interchange in 2015 but never touched scheme fees. In May 2025 the European Commission sent a new round of questionnaires to market participants about scheme fees, and merchant associations asked for an IFR review with price controls on scheme fees.
How do scheme fees show on an interchange++ invoice?
On an IC++ statement, each transaction carries its interchange line, its scheme fee line and the acquirer’s markup. The scheme fee line is itself a sum: assessment, authorization fee, cross-border, settlement currency, and any integrity fee triggered by that transaction.
More detail in our #PayDecoding episode on Scheme fees.