PSR Targets Visa & Mastercard Fees With Tougher Transparency Rules

The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has announced a significant regulatory intervention aimed at improving transparency, governance and oversight in the UK card payments market, following concerns over rising scheme and processing fees charged by Visa and Mastercard. The measures mark a decisive step to address what the regulator has identified as a lack of effective competition and insufficient fee transparency.

Card payments play a central role in the UK economy, yet the PSR’s market review found that businesses often struggle to understand the fees they pay to accept card payments, with limited ability to predict future costs. The regulator concluded that Mastercard and Visa face weak competitive constraints, allowing fees to rise without adequate scrutiny or justification.

In response, the PSR has proposed two targeted remedies designed to rebalance the market. The first, Information Transparency and Complexity, will require card schemes to provide acquirers with clear, actionable and comprehensible pricing information. This is intended to enable acquirers to compare costs effectively, make informed commercial decisions and pass greater clarity through to merchants.

The second remedy focuses on Pricing Governance. Under this measure, card schemes will be required to adopt stronger, evidence-based standards when setting and adjusting fees. The aim is to give both the regulator and market participants greater confidence that pricing decisions are robust, justified and subject to appropriate internal challenge.

Alongside these measures, the PSR is developing enhanced regulatory financial reporting requirements. This will give the regulator improved access to data on the financial performance and profitability of card schemes operating in the UK, strengthening its ability to monitor market dynamics and intervene where necessary. A separate consultation on the detailed reporting requirements is expected in spring 2026.

Taken together, these interventions are intended to deliver tangible benefits for acquirers and merchants by improving cost visibility and decision-making, while equipping the PSR with the information it needs to oversee the market more effectively. The regulator has emphasised that these steps are designed to promote a more competitive, innovative and fair card payments ecosystem.

Commenting on the proposals, David Geale, Managing Director at the PSR, said the measures would give acquirers and merchants the confidence and information needed to navigate card fees, while improving the regulator’s ability to support a competitive and innovative payments market.

The PSR is now consulting on the draft directions needed to implement the transparency and pricing governance remedies. Following consideration of industry feedback and the publication of the financial reporting proposals in spring 2026, the regulator expects to move to full implementation.