"The number of Visa cards in circulation in Hungary stood at 1.96 million in September, a decline of 22.3% year-on-year, Visa's Hungarian director Ede Kiss announced. The decline is partly due to an agreement with the EU on lower fixed interchange fees.In Hungary, Visa cut interchange fees – a fee charged by banks to process card transactions – to 0.2%. The lower fees prompted banks to prefer to issue cards of its rival, MasterCard, Nepszabadsag writes.
To address this problem, Visa is planning to set up a Visa Hungary board, authorised to set interchange fees, Kiss said.
Visa plans to meet with banks to discuss the issue, and seeks assurance from the competition regulator that it will not start cartel procedures against banks that might join the board, Kiss said."
Source: Hungary Around the Clock
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01.02.2012