Central Bank of Nigeria suspends charges on electronic payment

 

  The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has suspended the implementation of inter change regime on electronic payment that involves merchant service until further notice.

    It’s Director, banking and payments system department, Dipo Fatokun, in a signed circular to merchant acquirers, card issuers, card schemes, among other stakeholders explained that the apex banking regulating had communicated the discontinuance of the Merchant Service Charge by May 1, 2017, and its subsequent replacement with the implementation of the interchange regime.
Merchant Service Charge is the fee merchants such as supermarkets pay for payment customers make to them through electronic payment channels such as Point of Sales, PoS.
    The interchange fee regime will replace the Merchant Service Charge. By this move, Merchants and Acquirers will henceforth negotiate the Merchant Service Charge, while the CBN will control the interchange fees paid by the Acquirers to the Card Issuer and other regulated service providers, as defined by the CBN.