MasterCard's European Interchange Fee Methodology

In remarks given to a press conference yesterday, Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for Competition Policy, noted that with MasterCard's changes to its interchange fees in Europe, "the aim of the new MIFs to be applied by MasterCard is that a merchant's costs in accepting card payments should be no higher than the benefits from avoiding receiving cash." Yesterday, MasterCard announced new interchange fees for cross-border transactions on consumer credit card transactions at 0.3% and at 0.2% for its consumer debit card transactions.