Key Highlights

  • eftpos, Mastercard, Visa and large acquirers must publish the fees they charge.
  • Businesses are to receive standardised fee information on their statements.
  • A foreign card interchange cap also takes effect on 1 April 2027, as the second stage of the reform.

The end of card surcharging on 1 October grabbed the attention, but the Reserve Bank's payments package has a second stage, and it takes effect on 1 April 2027.

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 Bullock summed it up for the Senate Economics Legislation Committee on 28 October 2026: "Card surcharging was removed from 1 October".

Yet the March 2026 Conclusions Paper from the RBA's Review of Merchant Card Payment Costs and Surcharging set out a staged timetable. Two further sets of changes, a foreign card interchange cap and some transparency measures, take effect from 1 April 2027. They attract fewer headlines than the surcharge ban, but they are an integral part of the design.

Why transparency was part of the package

The Payments System Board concluded that three things together were in the public interest: removing card surcharging, reducing interchange fee caps and improving transparency. Each addresses a different piece of the puzzle.

Removing surcharges deals with what consumers see at the checkout. Lowering interchange caps deals with wholesale costs that merchants bear, and the RBA expected the lower caps to cut merchants' wholesale card costs "by around $910 million per year". Transparency deals with something less tangible but equally important: whether businesses can actually see, understand and compare what they are being charged.

That third element matters more once surcharging has gone. Previously, a merchant facing high card costs could, in principle, pass some of those costs on through a surcharge. With that option removed, a business's main levers are to manage its costs and to choose among providers. Both depend on clear information.

What the transparency rules require

According to the Conclusions Paper, two main transparency measures are part of the package:

  • Published fees. eftpos, Mastercard, Visa and large acquirers must publish the fees they charge.
  • Standardised statements. Businesses are to receive standardised fee information on their statements.

Published fees from the schemes and large acquirers should make it easier for anyone, from a small café owner to an industry analyst, to see how pricing compares across the market. Acquirers are the providers that process card payments on behalf of merchants, so their fees are among those most directly felt by businesses.

Standardised statement information addresses a practical challenge. If each provider presents fees in its own format, comparing them can be time-consuming and confusing. A common approach to presenting fee information is intended to let businesses check what they are paying and weigh up alternatives on a more like-for-like basis.

The Conclusions Paper states that some transparency changes take effect on 1 April 2027. Businesses wanting to know exactly which requirements apply from that date, and in what form, may find it useful to consult the paper directly.

The foreign-card cap

The other change arriving in April is a foreign card interchange cap. Interchange is a wholesale fee within card networks, and foreign cards are those issued overseas and used to pay Australian merchants, for example by visiting tourists or by customers buying from Australian businesses online.

Bringing these transactions under an interchange cap extends the RBA's approach to wholesale card costs into an area that the October changes did not cover. The exact level of the new cap is set out in the RBA's Conclusions Paper and is not restated here.

For businesses that serve many international customers, such as those in tourism, hospitality or online retail, this part of the package may be particularly relevant. With surcharging removed, the costs of accepting foreign cards are now something these merchants must manage without a surcharge to fall back on, which gives the April change added weight.

It is also worth noting what the package left as it was. The commercial credit cap was retained at its current level.

Early evidence and the road to April

The RBA has pointed to some early positive signs. In her Senate statement, the Governor said several large providers have cut card processing fees for small businesses, and that competition is showing signs of increasing.

Those developments came before the April transparency measures, which suggests that providers are already responding to the new environment. The publication of fees from April 2027 may add to that competitive pressure by making price differences more visible.

Between now and April, the Payments System Board is scheduled to meet twice according to the RBA calendar: on 19 November 2026 and on 24 February 2027. The calendar does not specify the agenda for either meeting.

Meanwhile, the RBA's wider Review of Payments System Regulation continues. The Governor told the committee: "We intend to release regulatory priorities by the end of 2026", with further consultation on prioritised issues by mid-2027. Stakeholders in that review have raised mobile wallets, three-party card schemes, account-to-account payments and agentic commerce. That process is separate from the April changes, which were settled in the March Conclusions Paper.

For consumers, the April changes are less directly visible than the end of surcharges. Shoppers paying with a debit or credit card should already not be facing a surcharge. The April measures operate mainly between providers and merchants, although lower and more transparent costs for businesses are part of the rationale for the overall package. The RBA has estimated that "Consumers are estimated to be paying $1.6 billion of a total $1.8 billion in card payment surcharges" each year, which underlines why the consumer-facing part of the reforms came first.

The bottom line

The RBA's card payments reform is a two-stage project. The first stage, on 1 October 2026, removed surcharging on debit and credit cards and lowered domestic interchange caps. The second stage, on 1 April 2027, brings in a foreign card interchange cap and transparency changes requiring eftpos, Mastercard, Visa and large acquirers to publish their fees, with businesses to receive standardised fee information on statements.

The April measures are less dramatic than the end of surcharging, but they are designed to help make the rest of the package work. For merchants in particular, understanding what will appear on statements from April, and how published fees compare, may be worth knowing well ahead of time.