Large acquirers have until 30 January 2027 to publish whether the lower domestic interchange caps that took effect on 1 October 2026 have been passed through to the businesses they serve.

Shoppers rarely see the fee that flows between banks each time a card is tapped. Merchants feel it, indirectly, through the institution that processes their card payments. That institution, known as the acquirer, is now facing a deadline set as part of the Reserve Bank of Australia's overhaul of retail payments regulation: by 30 January 2027, large acquirers are due to publish information on the pass-through of interchange cuts.

The date matters because it is the first formal checkpoint on whether a cost reduction designed at the top of the payments chain has actually filtered down to the businesses at the bottom of it.

What changed on 1 October

The RBA's reforms took effect in a cluster on 1 October 2026. According to the RBA's frequently asked questions on its review of retail payments regulation:

  • surcharges were removed on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa payments
  • lower domestic interchange caps applied from the same date
  • PayPal removal of surcharges followed on 5 October 2026, while American Express and UnionPay are also removing surcharges, although they are not formally regulated by the RBA.

Interchange is, in broad terms, a fee paid on each card transaction from the merchant's side of the transaction to the card issuer's side. It is one of the building blocks of what a Business pays to accept cards. When the cap on that fee is lowered, the saving lands first with the acquirer. Whether the acquirer then lowers the price it charges the merchant is a commercial decision, which is exactly why disclosure has become part of the package.

Ellis Connolly, the RBA's Head of Payments Policy, summed up the intent in a speech to the Australian Finance Industry Association (AFIA) on 20 October 2026: "we're really trying to put downward pressure on merchants' payment costs".

Why pass-through is the real test

Removing surcharges shifts something for consumers. They no longer see an extra charge added at the register for using eftpos, Mastercard or Visa. For merchants, however, the cost of accepting cards has not disappeared; it is now absorbed into the general cost of doing business rather than recovered line by line from the customer.

That makes the cost side of the reform especially important for small businesses. If lower interchange caps reduce what acquirers pay, but merchants keep paying the same rates, then the burden of the Surcharge ban falls on merchants without any offsetting relief. The 30 January publication requirement is designed to make that outcome visible.

Staging also makes practical sense. Pass-through cannot be judged on the first day of a new cap; acquirers need time to reprice, and merchants need a few billing cycles to see whether their statements have changed.

A three-step disclosure timetable

The 30 January deadline sits in the middle of a sequence of transparency measures. Drawing on the RBA's FAQ, the steps run as follows:

  • 30 October 2026: card networks and large acquirers began publishing card fee information.
  • 30 January 2027: large acquirers publish the pass-through of interchange cuts.
  • 1 April 2027: more detailed merchant statements are due from all acquirers, and interchange caps apply to foreign-issued cards.

Read together, the timetable moves from general fee information, to evidence about whether a specific cost saving has been shared, to more detailed information on individual merchant statements. The final step extends beyond large acquirers to all acquirers, widening the net.

For a merchant, the practical effect is a growing set of reference points. Published fee information allows comparison across providers. Pass-through disclosures show whether a provider has shared the benefit of lower caps. Detailed statements make it easier to check what a business is being charged and why.

The pass-through deadline is one part of a broader workload for the RBA's payments area. In her opening statement to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee on 28 October 2026, Governor Michele Bullock noted that card surcharging was removed from 1 October, that payments regulatory priorities are due by the end of 2026, and that consultation on prioritised issues is expected by mid-2027.

Connolly made a similar point in his AFIA remarks: "The plan is by the end of this year to have publicised what the areas of priority are". He also said the RBA had received about 70 submissions to its payments regulation review.

The scale of card use helps explain the attention. Connolly said cards account for 75% of payments, drawing on a consumer survey the RBA has run every three years since 2008, and that nearly 50% of card payments are now made via mobile wallets. With cards so dominant, even small differences in the fees businesses pay per transaction add up across the economy.

What merchants and consumers can watch for

Nothing in the RBA material sets an outcome the published pass-through figures must show. The requirement is to publish, not to hit a target. That leaves the information itself to do much of the work: merchants, industry groups and the regulator will all be able to see how acquirers have responded.

For merchants, the period between now and late January may be a useful window to look at the card fee information already being published and compare it with current statements. Businesses unsure of how changes affect them can consider speaking with their payments provider or a licensed adviser.

For consumers, the link is less direct but still real. Payment costs are one of many inputs into the prices businesses set. The RBA has framed the reforms in terms of merchant costs, and has not published any estimate of how they might affect shop prices, so readers should be wary of claims that put a precise figure on any consumer benefit.

The bottom line

The removal of card surcharges was the visible change on 1 October 2026. The lower interchange caps introduced the same day were the quieter part of the package, and 30 January 2027 is when large acquirers must show whether those savings have reached merchants. The disclosure does not guarantee any particular result, but it puts acquirers' pricing decisions on the public record. Followed by more detailed statements from all acquirers on 1 April 2027, it marks the shift from setting new rules to testing whether they are working as intended.