Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/212182 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers No. 3/2011
Publisher: 
Bank of Finland, Helsinki
Abstract: 
Cards and cash are competing payment instruments at point-of-sale. The twosided market platform theory, based on general benefit assumptions, supports the use of multilateral interchange fees for card payments as a means of promoting the use of cards. However, analysis of the issue from the concrete processing cost viewpoint leads to the opposite conclusion: collection of debit card interchange fees by issuers results in subsidisation of cash and so actually promotes the use of cash instead of cards. Banks use card interchange revenues to cover cash distribution costs. For merchants, interchange fees increase payment costs and thus reduce the possibilities to pass through to customers the cost savings flowing from card efficiency. Moreover, because of high merchant fees due to high interchange fees, merchants are also more reluctant to accept payment cards. An MIF based on the tourist level approach will result in all parties being indifferent between cash and cards and thereby delay the realisation of the cost benefits of increased debit card usage. The resent actions of authorities to increase transparency and reduce cross-subsidisation seem to point in the right direction towards more efficient resource allocation in payments.
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
ISBN: 
978-952-462-661-3
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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