However, because the statute explicitly instructs the Board to consider clearing and settlement costs, in addition to authorization costs, the proposal includes those costs, rather than limiting allowable costs only to authorization costs. We also considered including other costs that are associated with a particular transaction but that are not directly associated with authorizing, clearing, and settling the transaction.
Such costs might include, for example, the cost of providing cardholder rewards and the cost of responding to cardholder inquiries regarding specific transactions.