Business community calls on Zelenskyi and Rada not to back down from their declared intentions to reduce acquiring and legislate interchanging

Since the beginning of 2020, small, medium, and large businesses in the retail and service industries have united in the fight against the banking monopoly for their own rights and fair business conditions that exist in European countries.

The press service of the Ukrainian Business Council stated this, Rubryka reports.

In February 2021, entrepreneurs called to reduce the total cost of acquiring, and the interbank commission (interchanging), and it was supported by People's Deputies of Ukraine both at the level of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy and at the level of Parliament. Thus, in the Conclusion on the Draft Law of Ukraine "On Payment Services" (Reg. № 4364) of February 3, 2021, the Committee on Finance, Tax, and Customs Policy clearly enshrined the recommendation to finalize the draft for the second reading by including provisions on the maximum amount of interchanging commission. On February 19, 2021, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine supported this decision of the Committee in adopting the draft in the first reading as a basis.

In March 2021, the issue of reducing the cost of acquiring and the interbank commission (interchanging) through legislation was discussed and supported at a meeting of the National Reform Council chaired by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi.

More than 50 deputies of Ukraine submitted amendments to Draft Law № 4364 on the legislative restriction on the size of acquiring and interbank commission (interchanging), including members of the parliamentary faction of the "Servant of the People" political party, as well as representatives of the parliamentary factions of the "Voice" and Batkivshchyna political parties and the "For the Future Party" parliamentary group. At present, all these amendments have been rejected by the Committee with the wording regarding their inconsistency with Regulation № 2015/751 in the comparative table before the second reading.

On April 12, 2021, leading business associations issued a joint statement on the need to legislate the maximum size of the interchanging commission by adopting amendments to Draft Law 4364, which would help bring Ukrainian legislation closer to the requirements of EU legislation, in particular, EU Regulation № 2015/751, namely: establishing interchange fee limits of 0.2% for debit cards and 0.3% for credit cards. It's the path chosen in the European Union after numerous lawsuits and anti-competitive investigations, which have shown that the situation in the acquiring services market is distorting market relations.

As a reasonable compromise with payment systems and banking institutions, businesses proposed a gradual reduction of the interchanging commission over three years to the level enshrined in current EU legislation; it was proposed to set the following limits of the interchanging commission: 1% from 1.07.2021, 0.75% from 1.07.2022, 0.50% from July 1, 2023, 0.20-0.30% from July 1, 2024.

A memorandum, initiated by the National Bank of Ukraine and international payment systems, on the gradual reduction of the interbank commission (interchanging) to 0.9% (which is three times the commission limit set by EU Regulation № 2015/751) is not supported by business, since, according to experts, it won't lead to the acquiring fee reduction and is, in fact, an attempt to slow down the process of a proper problem settlement at the legislative level, and therefore is not acceptable for its solution.

Given the above, the business community:

• calls on the President of Ukraine, the People's Deputies of Ukraine, and the Parliament not to deviate from their announced intentions to help reduce the cost of acquiring and the interbank commission (interchanging) through legislative regulation;
• supports the initiatives of the People's Deputies of Ukraine to revise the decision of the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy of April 18, 2020, regarding the regulation of the interbank commission (interchanging), and in case the interchanging issue isn't resolved, submit Draft Law № 4364 to the second reading;
• insists on the need for legislative regulation of the interchange fee limit and its gradual reduction to the level provided for in EU Regulation №/751: 0.2% for debit cards and 0.3% for credit cards; at the same time, it offers a gradual reduction of the maximum size of the interchanging commission at the level of 1% from 1.07.2021, 0.75% from 1.07.2022, 0.50% from 1.07.2023, 0.20% for debit cards and 0.30% for credit cards from July 1, 2024.