Acquired.com – Reducing Processing Fees for Financial Services Industry

About Us

Acquired.com is an innovative Payment Gateway focused exclusively on providing payment processing services to leading fintech, financial services and lending companies. We are on a charge to revolutionise payments and are continually striving to add value by addressing the payment processing challenges facing our merchants.

Opportunity

Acquired.com, in conjunction with selected acquiring partners, is pleased to be able to offer eligible merchants the opportunity to enrol in the Visa Me-to-Me programme.

Come speak to us about how we are reducing processing fee for merchants within the Financial Services industry through the Visa Me-to-Me programme –https://acquired.com.

Background

On 1^st September 2016, Visa removed the interchange cap on UK domestic debit card transactions. The caps stood at £1 for non 3-D Secure transactions and £0.50 for 3-D Secure transactions. The removal of the interchange cap meant merchants, particularly those processing high value transactions, incurred higher processing fees which ultimately cut into their profit margins.

However, following consultation with key industries, Visa then introduced a new programme that re-instated a cap on interchange with an objective to help combat high costs in certain sectors. This new Visa program was called “Me-to-Me”.

Eligibility

For merchants to qualify for the me-to-me payment merchant programme, all of the following criteria must be met:

1. Funds are being transferred by a cardholder to an account or portal in the cardholder’s name
2. The qualifying transactions are restricted to the Merchant Category Codes (MCCs) of:
   • 6012 – Financial Institutions – Merchandise and Services
   • 6211 – Securities Brokers/Dealers
   • 9399 – Government Services
3. Within the qualifying MCC’s, the merchant has an Average Transaction Value (ATV) for UK domestic consumer debit greater than £1,000, based on the previous calendar year.

For eligible merchants, entry into the Me-to-Me program is subject to a registration fee.

Scenario

The following outlines the interchange fees that an MCC 6012 merchant would have incurred when processing a non-secure transaction and a secure transaction both for £10,000:

1. Before the removal of the interchange cap in 2016. (Non-secure £1;  Secure £0.50)
2. After the removal of the interchange cap. (Non-secure £20; Secure £20)
3. After the introduction of the Me-to-Me program. (Non-secure £1; Secure £0.50)