On coverage, the issues discussed in the December paper concern commercial cards, foreign-issued cards and pre-paid cards. Currently commercial cards are included within the scope of the Bank’s interchange standards and hence form part of the calculation for the purposes of compliance with the weighted average benchmark.
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.