Mastercard to delay card fee hikes until April next year

LONDON: Mastercard has postponed plans for changes in interchange fee until April next year, the payments processor said in an emailed statement on Tuesday.

Interchange fee is the charge a merchant pays to the card-issuing bank every time a consumer swipes their card.

"Mindful that some merchants are still facing unprecedented circumstances ... we are delaying our previously announced interchange adjustments in the US until April 2022," Mastercard said.

Credit card usage has surged during the COVID-19 pandemic as people stuck at home resort to shopping online.

Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, and US Representative Peter Welch, a Democrat from Vermont, wrote a letter to Chief Executive Officers of Visa and Mastercard earlier this month, asking them to call off any plans to increase fees as the country was "still reeling from the ongoing pandemic".

Bloomberg News had earlier reported both Visa and Mastercard had postponed plans to hike card fees until April 2022.