Atos Worldline lowers fees on credit card transactions

Brussels, 25 November 2008 – Atos Worldline, an Atos Origin company, is lowering the fees retailers must pay on credit card transactions using Visa and MasterCard. This in turn is the result of a decision taken by MasterCard concerning its interchange fees.

In June, MasterCard International announced that the interchange fee for cross-border payments within the European Union using personal MasterCard and Maestro cards temporarily would be lowered to zero starting 21/06/08.

The interchange fee is the amount that Atos Worldline must pay for each payment transaction to the bank that issued the card. This amount is reflected in the fee that retailers pay to Atos Worldline.

It is unclear how long the decision by MasterCard will remain in effect. For this reason, Atos Worldline has looked into how to reflect this provisional interchange fee of zero percent in its pricing. In light of this, Atos Worldline has decided provisionally to lower current credit card fees starting 1 December.

This makes Atos Worldline the first and only acquirer in Belgium to have its customers to benefit from MasterCard's lowered interchange fees.