Changes to Tables
2 New Tables - C2 and C3.
All other tables have been renamed to accomodate these.
August 2005
Table C.2 – Market Shares of Credit and Charge Card Schemes
This month the Reserve Bank begins publishing monthly market share data for credit and charge card schemes. Market shares are reported as percentages of total purchases by value and number, and are calculated from transaction acquiring data obtained from the Reserve Bank’s retail payments statistics collection.
The market shares reported are split by scheme structure. Bankcard, MasterCard and Visa are ‘four-party’ credit card schemes established by banks. In four-party schemes the card acquirer and issuer may be different institutions, and the schemes themselves do not acquire card transactions. American Express and Diners Club are typically referred to as ‘three-party’ charge and credit card schemes. In three-party schemes the card issuer is generally the same as the card acquirer, and these schemes acquire the card transactions of their own scheme. Transactions on bank-issued American Express cards are included in the American Express and Diners Club market share data.
Table C.3 – Merchant Fees for Credit and Charge Cards
This month the Reserve Bank begins publishing quarterly merchant fee data for credit and charge card schemes. Average merchant fees are published as a percentage of the value of purchases.
Merchant fee data have been collected quarterly since March 2003, and purchases data are collected as part of the Reserve Bank’s retail payments statistics collection.
Merchants pay acquiring institutions merchant fees in order to be able to accepts cards for payment of goods and services. Merchant fees are structured on an ad valorem and flat basis, although the former make up the bulk of fees paid.
Merchant fees that are related to the number or value of transactions acquired are reported in the ‘merchant service fees’ column. ‘Other’ fees include terminal fees, member or joining fees or fixed monthly fees. These ‘other’ fees consist primarily of terminal rental fees. Diners Club charges none of these latter fees, because it does not currently rent terminals to merchants. Also, the allocation of ‘other’ fees between credit card acquiring and debit card acquiring is subject to the internal accounting methods of acquiring institutions, which may differ.
Bankcard, MasterCard and Visa merchant fees are reported together in the table because acquirers charge merchants common fees for these schemes.
Data for the end of each quarter will normally be available in the Bulletin two months later; for example, the June quarter’s data will normally appear in the August Bulletin.
To accommodate these new tables, the previous Tables C.2 to C.5 have been renumbered as follows:
C.4 – Debit Card Statistics (formerly C.2).
C.5 – Cheques and Direct Entry Payments (formerly C.3).
C.6 – Real-time Gross Settlement Statistics (formerly C.4).
C.7 – Points of Access to the Australian Payments System (formerly C.5).
