Britain sets new obligations for Mastercard, Visa

Britain’s Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) highlighted the lack of effective competition in core credit card services, where Visa and Mastercard dominate, as reported by Reuters on Tuesday.

According to an interim report, these major players have raised their scheme and processing fees by over 30 per cent in real terms over the past five years; however, there is little evidence that service quality has improved at the same rate.

The PSR proposes remedies, including enhanced transparency for users and obligations for Mastercard and Visa to explain price changes. Additionally, greater financial reporting will improve scrutiny of their UK operations going forward.