A number of interested parties have argued that these cards should be exempted, especially in the event that interchange caps were lowered. They argue, for example, that commercial cards typically provide a higher value of associated services than other card types, with fewer noninterchange revenue streams, and that these features could justify higher fees.
Turning to the monetary analysis, the Governing Council has again discussed the assessment of monetary developments in depth. The annual growth rate of M3 remains robust, notwithstanding signs of a resumption of the unwinding of past portfolio shifts into monetary assets, which exerts a dampening effect on headline M3 growth.