Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 29 September 2026
134. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance his plans to improve transparency for SME business customers in relation to fees, charges and bills for banking and payment services. [68502/26]
View answerThe Minister for Finance does not have a direct function in the relationship between financial service providers and their customers and accordingly cannot adjudicate on individual issues.
However, I understand that the merchant service charge is the fee charged by an acquirer to a business for processing card transactions. Acquirers are independent commercial entities operating in a competitive market. The amount of the merchant service charge varies by acquirer, often depending on the volume of card transactions the retailer accepts.
One aspect of the merchant service charge is the interchange fee, which is charged by card issuing banks to businesses for accepting card payments. Since 2015, interchange fees on consumer debit and credit cards have been capped. Under the Interchange Fee Regulation, Ireland set the maximum interchange fee at 0.1% of the value of transactions for domestic consumer debit cards and 0.3% of the value of transactions for consumer credit cards. However, the Interchange Fee Regulation does not cover commercial debit and credit cards.
There is no domestic card payment scheme and Irish card payments are primarily facilitated by international card payment schemes such as VISA and MasterCard. The Central Bank seeks independently verified transaction and fee information from international card schemes operating in Ireland to ensure that they are operating in compliance with the Interchange Fee Regulations.
While regulated entities must comply with the rules regarding interchange fees, the merchant service charge is a commercial decision for each service provider. Acquiring services is a competitive market and businesses in general, and smaller businesses in particular, could stand to benefit from lower rates by switching provider.
In relation to the transparency on fees or charges, there are requirements on the breakdown of charges under the European Union (Payment Services) Regulations 2018 (PSD2) - these payment rules are currently being revised and enhanced at European level as part of the third revision of the Payment Service Directive (PSD3)/Payment Service Regulation.
Retail banks operating in Ireland are subject to regulatory supervision by the Central Bank of Ireland. Under section 149 of the Consumer Credit Act 1995, credit institutions must notify the Central Bank if they wish to
• introduce any new customer charge for providing certain services; or
• increase any existing customer charge for providing certain services.
The Central Bank advises that each notification received by the Central Bank is assessed in accordance with the specific criteria set out in section 149 of the Consumer Credit Act 1995. The Central Bank may either approve (in full or at lower levels than requested) or reject a credit institution’s application under section 149.
Credit institutions are free to impose any pricing differentials for the service up to the permitted maximum and are free to waive charges at their discretion for commercial or competitive reasons.
The Central Bank’s modernised Consumer Protection Code 2025, which took effect on 24 March 2026, materially widened the population of small businesses benefiting from the protections of the Consumer Protection Code.
It increased the number of small businesses generally brought within the definition of “consumer” by increasing the threshold for inclusion within the definition from annual turnover of €3m to €5 million. The modernised Code contains strong fee-transparency rules, which will apply to those SMEs within its scope.
