From next Autumn, small businesses and non-profits with less than $300,000 in Visa sales and less than $175,000 in Mastercard sales will qualify for fee cuts of up to 27%.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) has been fighting for lower credit card fees for small businesses for over a decade, urging the government and the credit card industry to level the playing field and provide more fairness for small businesses. Earlier this year, CFIB joined Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland at the credit card deal announcement in Brampton.
“This is a significant agreement as many Canadian small business owners will now have access to a special, lower interchange rate designed specifically for them,” said Dan Kelly – President and CEO, CFIB. Small businesses with up to $300,000 in annual Visa sales and $175,000 in annual Mastercard sales will now qualify for a 0.95% average interchange rate for in-store sales and a 0.1% cut in ecommerce fees. CFIB’s initial analysis shows that nearly three-quarters (73%) of its members will benefit from these rate reductions of up to 27%.„
Bringing in-store transactions to an annual weighted average interchange rate of 0.95% is expected to save eligible Canadian small businesses about $1 billion over five years, says the government. In addition, the deal sees Visa and Mastercard provide free access to online fraud and cybersecurity resources.
While this agreement brings some welcome relief to small businesses, the new rates will only come into effect in the fall of 2024. Small businesses need financial relief now as they’re dealing with low sales, high borrowing costs, pandemic debt and labour shortages. And with the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) repayment deadline just over a month away (January 18, 2024), CFIB worries many small businesses may not last long enough to see the benefit of today’s announcement. Small businesses need more time to repay their loans, and we’re urging the government to further extend the forgiveness deadline to the end of Dec. 31, 2024.
CFIB will also continue to put pressure on the government to expand the agreement to additional credit card providers and to review size thresholds to benefit more small- and medium-sized businesses.
For details on the agreement and CFIB’s work to reduce credit card fees for small businesses, visit cfib.ca/credit-cards.
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Banking 4.0 – „how was the experience for you”
„So many people are coming here to Bucharest, people that I see and interact on linkedin and now I get the change to meet them in person. It was like being to the Football World Cup but this was the World Cup on linkedin in payments and open banking.”
Many more interesting quotes in the video below:
