Comments on Aneace's Blog: Has interchange regulation in Australia redistribu...

Hi Adam. Always good to hear from you. I can under...

2008-05-09T08:48:00.000+02:00

Hi Adam. Always good to hear from you. I can understand the need to make it easier for merchants to surcharge certain card products, so I would agree with your comment on network rules. Many countries have already done away with no-surcharge rules, so the solution already exists. What I seriously question is the ability or relevance for regulators to fix interchange fees at specific levels as

Also, Aneace, is unregulated interchange mean inte...

2008-05-08T07:16:00.000+02:00

Also, Aneace, is unregulated interchange mean interchange unaffected by government regulation or interchange unaffected by any regulation, including network rules like no-surcharge and honor-all-cards? I think it is important to see that card network rules are as much an interference in the free market as the same rules would be if imposed by a regulator.

Aneace, I think you should read the CRAI study mo...

2008-05-08T07:13:00.001+02:00

Aneace, I think you should read the CRAI study more critically. For starters, it might be good to note that CRAI's research has been funded by MasterCard Worldwide. In my book that makes it largely worthless. But then it's very hard to find anyone who studies credit card issues who isn't on the card industry's payroll.

Then to the heart of the CRAI's claim--that there is no