The Faster Payments System in Russia offers new conditions
The Central Bank announced its decision to establish a commission fee for stores which use the Faster Payments System at the level of 0.4-0.5%. A similar percentage will be set when making payments with the help of a QR code, the representatives of the Central Bank say. It is worth underlining that it is 3-4 times lower than the current acquiring fees in retail.
The Central Bank of Russia has announced the possibility of making the decision according to which all the trade and service enterprises, which accept payments by QR code through the Faster Payments System, will have the same commission fee. The Central Bank spoke about this for the first time at the conference of market participants in February 2019. At that event, a possible percentage of 0.4-0.5 was mentioned.
At this meeting, the Central Bank also presented its concept of a business model for the formation of the tariff. According to this presentation, the Central Bank, as operator of the Faster Payments System, will establish a single fee to be charged by retail outlets for the settlement and services of the payment and clearing center operator. This amount will also have a percentage, which will transfer fixed commissions to the client’s bank and the bank of the store.
In this case, 50% of the amount will belong to the system, and the other half will be divided between the client’s bank and the bank of the merchant. According to bankers, Russia has been moving toward the installation of such interest for years. In addition, financial corporations have come to terms with this value, experts assure.
It is worth recalling that at the moment the commission on the trade is 1.5-2.5%. That is, the introduction of new conditions will reduce the percentage by 3-4 times.
The Faster Payments System in Russia: implementation
According to representatives of the Central Bank, the new model will also have an agent who will be responsible for technical tasks. Such an agent could be both banks and manufacturers of cash registers, as well as the outlets themselves. In this case, the store agent will have an even smaller commission – 0.3%. But it is worth considering that only large stores can count on such a vacancy. Because smaller ones would not be able to meet the technical requirements of the system.
It is also worth noting that the founders of the system have not yet decided whether the amount of commission will depend on the type of activity of the retailer.
As the head of the department of online sales of Alfa Bank Alexander Solonin has said, the QR code is only a variant, which the Central Bank has taken as an example. In fact the experts of the corporation evaluate the advantages of every method of cashless payments.
By the way, the Faster Payment System was initially launched only in the trial mode. Then it worked only with focus groups of individuals. However, at the end of February, the system should have been available to all customers of eleven banks, including VTB, Alfa Bank, Tinkoff Bank, Gazprombank, Promsvyazbank, Raiffeisenbank and others.
Using the Faster Payment System , users can make payments without spending a lot of time. According to the developers, user identification can even be done by phone number.
