A Welcome Shake Up In Card Acquiring

The UK's payments watchdog has set out new rules designed to inject more competition into the market for card acquiring services.

The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) have previously undertaken an in-depth market review into card acquiring services looking at:

· How merchants buy card-acquiring services
· Who provides card-acquiring services
· Alternatives provisions to card-acquiring
· What the market is delivering for merchants and consumers vs the quality of service they receive

Their proposed remedy is an invitation to the industry to promote:
· Greater pricing transparency
· Access to a comparison tool
· Greater engagement etc

In a context where consumers and businesses globally rely more than ever before on digital payments i.e. using cards, APMs, bank transfers, wallets, I'll be curious to see what will prevail from the consultation and how any measures will be adopted consistently across the industry.

Transparency and the notion of a comparison tool seems to be supportive and in alignment with the emergence of the smart routing processing, payments orchestration platforms... However... yet with still some room for new, innovative or alternative solutions to tap onto this space...

Full article in link below.

Source: https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/39595/psr-bids-to-shake-up-card-acquiring-market