Economic News

On 1 October 2026, one of the most visible changes to Australia's payments system in years took effect. Surcharging on debit and credit cards ended, and reductions to domestic interchange fee caps came into force on the same day. For shoppers, the change was …

For a small business owner, the end of card surcharging on 1 October 2026 raised an obvious concern. If a café, hairdresser or corner store can no longer add a surcharge to card payments, who covers the cost of accepting them?

When card surcharges disappeared from Australian checkouts on 1 October 2026, most of the attention went to shoppers. But a second change took effect the same day, one that operates largely out of sight: reductions to the caps on domestic interchange fees.

Few line items on a receipt generated as much irritation as the card surcharge. A coffee, a taxi fare or a restaurant bill could carry a small extra charge simply because the customer tapped a card rather than handing over cash. For years that …

Tap a phone at a checkout, send money directly from one bank account to another, or let a piece of software complete a purchase without a human pressing "pay". Each of these is becoming part of how Australians move money, and each raises questions …

Regulatory reviews rarely move in a straight line from question to answer. They tend to proceed in stages: an initial call for views, a period of sifting through responses, a decision about what matters most, and then deeper consultation on the chosen issues before …

It would be easy to assume the Reserve Bank of Australia's card payments overhaul wrapped up at the start of October. Surcharges on debit and credit cards disappeared from 1 October 2026, and lower domestic interchange caps arrived on the same day. Governor Michele …