No need for surcharge study

The study by the Commonwealth Consumer Affairs Advisory Council of credit card surcharges may be premature, the Australian Payments Clearing Association says in a submission published on its website.

In May, the Federal Government stirred up banks and merchants over "concerns about credit card surcharges and non-transparent transaction fees", and requested a study by the council.

APCA said that "ideally, market and self-regulatory based solutions, such as facilitated by the RBA's recent Standards changes, would need to be thoroughly and properly assessed before consideration of further responses to address excessive surcharging."

APCA pointed out that the current regime has only been in place for a matter of months.

"It could be argued that properly evaluating the effectiveness of the recent reforms at this current time is premature."