Reserve Bank of Australia to introduce caps on interchange fees

The package of reforms follows an extensive public consultation process since the release of a Consultation Paper in July 2025.

Under the new regime, surcharging on debit, prepaid and credit cards will be banned in a move designed to make card payments simpler, more transparent and increase competition among payment service providers.

“Removing surcharging also aligns with the preference of most consumers for payment costs to be incorporated into advertised prices,” says the central bank.

The lowering of caps on interchange fees are expected to lower businesses’ costs when they accept domestic or overseas card payments. Equally, new transparency rules on the fees charged by card networks and payment service providers are intended to put downward pressure on card payment costs and make it easier for businesses to shop around for a better deal.

Most of these changes will come into effect on 1 October 2026, including the removal of surcharging and reductions in the interchange caps for domestic card transactions. The introduction of an interchange cap on foreign cards and some changes to payment cost transparency will come into effect later, on 1 April 2027, to give payment providers more time to implement the changes.

Moving on, The RBA says it plans to start a public consultation in mid-2026 to assess the public interest case for regulating mobile wallets, three-party card networks, buy-now, pay-later services and e-commerce platforms.