Latest Wins & Outcomes

MRC is having on-going talks with merchant members operating in Japan regarding concerns around the impact of a potential mandate on SCA implementation. MRC is scheduling a further meeting with merchants to discuss further and will provide an update to the financial regulator (METI) there on the outcome of the meeting. METI’s JCA working group has already commended the MRC for its work in this regard.

The MRC worked with Mastercard to delay the start of fees for this mandatory NSF decline recovery service (from July to October 2023). We continue to partner closely with our merchants and acquirer members to assess its readiness and effectiveness.

On September 12, 2023MRC ran a webinar with expert speakers to discuss the European Commission Proposals on PSD3 and PSR, advising merchants on the potential impacts and the process and timelines for the regulation and Directive.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) asked MRC to work together with AusPayNet to produce a process and plan for the industry to help resolve the issue of data breaches, with a view to including tokenization and other options such as PCI standards as mitigants. The aim is to avoid a mandate and to ensure choice for merchants. The topic of card data retention is also being discussed as MRC merchants have a concern about business operations if cardholder data cannot be retained. APN and MRC remain in consultation on the matter.

MRC has been engaging the U.S. Federal Reserve regarding FedNow  and merchant impacts. The Reserve has seen MRC as a risk organization. It has been made clear MRC is a payments organization and the Reserve will continue to engage MRC when considering future payment-related policies.

August meetings took place on the 15th and 16th of 2023, with the next cycle of events planned for February 14th and 15th 2024. Very well attended with clear updates provided from Visa and Mastercard on upcoming changes and the impact on merchants.

The MRC commenced this forum in March 2023 to ensure we’re in sync with Acquirer issues and pain points related to card network fees and services, bulletins, upcoming mandates and other issues.

MRC is introducing a Monthly Advocacy Round Up to share with all members and in the public domain regarding activities and monthly ‘wins’.Videos will be posted on LinkedIn with quick updates and blog posts will be more active.