Card Brand Updates

Card brands including American Express, Discover, Interac, JCB, Mastercard, Union Pay and Visa continuously update their fee structures for specific categories. We will regularly communicate these updates on this page.

Updated December 2019

Interac

Effective April 1, 2020

• Switch fee assessment increases from $0.00904 to $0.009605

Mastercard

Effective May 1, 2020

• 3D Secure (3DS) Assessment Fee Changes (per transaction):
• 3DS MC Identity Check increases to $.05
• 3DS 2.0 at 0.0113% + $0.113 (All 3D Secure transactions will receive this assessment)
• 3DS Data Only (No issuer participation) at $0
• Introducing a new Excessive Fraud Data Integrity fees for e-commerce transactions. Merchants who meet the following criteria are subject to compliance action and fees:
• Minimum of 1,000 e-commerce transactions in clearing
• Monthly fraud is greater than $50,000 USD
• Monthly fraud is more than 50 bps
• Penetration of 3DS and/or Data Only transactions is less 10% of total card-not-present volume

• Introduction of International Super Premium Categories in Canada:
• IRD EE—Interregional Consumer Super Premium Electronic
• IRD EF—Interregional Consumer Super Premium Full UCAF
• IRD EM—Interregional Consumer Super Premium Merchant UCAF
• IRD ES—Interregional Consumer Super Premium Standard
• These will include the following products (GCMS Product ID): MCW, MWE, MDH, MDW, MNW, MUW, MWD, MWR, TCW, TNW, TWB, WBE, MBW, MBK, MWP, WPD, MFB, MFE, MSP. These will be defined as Commercial Non-Qual for tiered merchants

• Revised Interchange Programs in Canada:
• Restructure of the Consumer Credit interchange programs. Complete replacement of prior program (including removal of the CFIB rates) with new structure. This includes 10 Interchange Categories and 4 card types. Muse is a new super premium card type being introduced for the first time. For tiered programs, Muse will be classified in the Commercial Non-Qual bucket. New and Revised Intracountry Interchange Programs:

• Revised interchange categories and rates on commercial programs

Effective May 4th, 2020

• Fixed Acquirer Access Fee change from 0.008% to $0.0103 per transaction

Visa

Effective April 1, 2020

• International Acquirer Service Assessment Fee increases for both Canadian currency and Issuer (home) currency transactions

Effective April 18, 2020

• Reductions to Domestic Consumer Interchange Rates. Visa is introducing numerous rate changes to its existing interchange categories
• Modifications to Interchange Categories:
• Introduction of 3 new categories: Performance Program—CNP, Industry Program—Utilities (removed from Tier 1), Emerging Segments—Preferred
• Elimination of 1 category (Performance Program—Tier 2)
• Changes to Emerging Segment: removal of Electronic and Recurring, addition of Card Not Present to qualification criteria

Visa Domestic Interchange Rates

Card brands including American Express, Discover, Interac, JCB, Mastercard, Union Pay and Visa continuously update their fee structures for specific categories. We will regularly communicate these updates on this page.

Updated June 2019

Visa

Effective October 18, 2019, the Merchant Category Code (MCC) 8661 – Religious Organizations – will be added to Visa’s Emerging Rate program. Emerging segment rates (which are lower than standard rates) will be available for transactions processed with this MCC.

Mastercard

• Effective October 18, 2019, Mastercard will update its interchange rate for international refund/return transactions to:
  • 1.00% for transactions with consumer product codes
  • 1.80% for transactions with commercial product codes
• Effective October 19, 2019, Mastercard will eliminate its Cross-Border, L2 and Large Ticket interchange categories. A summary of the eliminated charge types and the new charge types is available on the back side of this letter
• Effective November 1, 2019, Mastercard will begin including credit transactions (e.g. refunds, returns) into its calculation of the Current Volume Assessment in Canada.
• Effective November 4, 2019, Mastercard will introduce a Pre-Authorization Fee in Canada. A 0.05% fee will be added to authorizations that meet all of these conditions:
  • The authorization is processed through the Mastercard Network;
  • The authorization request is either fully or partially approved;
  • The authorization is coded as a pre-authorization; and
  • The authorization originates from a Canadian merchant account.