Card fines have slowed down – Newspaper Kommersant No. 2 (7447) of 01/10/2023

The National Payment Card System (NSPK) reduces fines by 20 times for each transaction on cards of international payment systems, where the type of activity of a trade and service enterprise is incorrectly indicated. Thus, this type of fine lasted a little more than two months. According to market participants, it could lead to the accrual of millions of rubles per month for acquirers, and shifting them to retail companies can limit the growth of non-cash turnover. However, the NSPK retained other types of fines that limit miscoding.

The NSPK offer to conclude an “Agreement for the provision of operational services and payment clearing services” (Kommersant reviewed the document) for credit institutions that issue or service cards of international payment systems (IPS) enters into force on January 10. According to the document, the turnover fine for non-compliance of the MCC code of a trade and service enterprise (TSP) with the activity in which it is engaged (miscoding) is reduced by 20 times – from 100 rubles. up to 5 rubles for each identified transaction.

At the same time, a fine of 50 thousand rubles remains unchanged. for the violation found. In addition, the transactions of this merchant are recalculated for interchange (a commission that the acquiring bank servicing the outlet pays to the issuing bank of the card with which payment is made) at a maximum rate of 2.35% for the three months preceding the identified violation.

Thus, the high turnover fine lasted a little more than two months (see Kommersant dated November 15, 2022). A Kommersant source in the payment market estimated that with an average check of 800 rubles. the penalty is reduced from 13% to 0.6%. And since the fine is negotiable, then, according to the interlocutor of Kommersant, it could turn out to be even more significant than the lump sum payment and the recalculation of the interchange, taken together.

The NSPK did not respond to Kommersant’s request. According to the head of the board of the Financial Innovations Association (AFI) Roman Prokhorov, the adopted change is designed to balance all components of the penalty for miscoding, so that none of them is absolutely prevailing. “The effectiveness of the punishment is ensured not by its excessiveness, but by its inevitability, and here we got both a fixed fine and a recalculation of the interchange, and even a high fine for each operation,” he notes.

As a result, since these fines are shifted to the merchant, according to Roman Prokhorov, it is easier for a small company to close or refuse to accept cards, as well as inform colleagues and market partners about such “pitfalls” of cashless payments. “The result of such a fight against miscoding will be a move away from non-cash payments,” Mr. Prokhorov believes.

At the same time, Dmitry Vishnyakov, an independent expert in the payment card market, believes that the new version of the NSPK rules will weaken the liability of merchants and acquirers for incorrect coding of transactions. “This can contribute to dishonest behavior of participants in the payment system, when the acquirer underestimates the interchange by miscoding,” he explains.

However, market participants, even when only NSPK introduced penalties for miscoding on MPS cards, noted that at present the problem is no longer as acute as several years ago, when cross-border transactions in casinos were widespread, which were hidden under MCC codes, for example, flower shops (see Kommersant dated June 29, 2021). Today, according to Kommersant’s sources, the practice is coming to naught, not least due to the introduced fines.

Maxim Buylov