UK Payment Systems Regulator (PSR)Finehigh

Barclays

London, United Kingdom

4 million for breaching the Interchange Fee Regulation (IFR) by failing to provide retailers with full information about card service costs. The non-compliance ran from December 2015 to December 2018, during which Barclays processed roughly a third of all UK card payment transactions. Thousands of retailers were affected, left unable to compare prices or negotiate better deals on card acceptance fees.

The PSR opened its investigation on Nov 15, 2018. Barclays agreed to settle at the earliest possible stage, qualifying for a 30% early settlement discount. The PSR confirmed that the required IFR disclosures are now available to all retailers using Barclays' card payment processing services.

Implications
  1. Sponsor banks and card-processing providers supporting embedded finance must ensure full IFR fee transparency to merchants
  2. BaaS platforms relying on Barclays for card acquiring or payment processing may face downstream compliance scrutiny
  3. Signals increased PSR willingness to levy significant fines for disclosure failures in card payment processing
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