18
19
CMSPI – IAC State of the Industry Report
CMSPI – IAC State of the Industry Report
1.80%
1.70%
1.60%
1.50%
1.40%
1.30%
1.20%
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Graph 1.4 – The Cost Conundrum: Weighted-Average Cost of Payment Acceptance 18
Graph 1.5 – U.S. Card Acceptance Fees 19
Tables 1.1 to 1.4 show a breakdown of the $224 billion 20 in 2023 U.S. card fees paid. Credit card fees significantly outweigh debit card fees, which is explored in more detail when looking at regulation in Section 5.1. We can see card-not-present (CNP) fees outweigh CP fees, despite higher CP volumes. Nearly $8 billion was paid in international interchange and network fees in 2023, despite it only constituting around 2% of U.S. card volume.
1.Rising Card Fees Since 2011, U.S. retailers have experienced a significant and continual increase in card acceptance costs, primarily driven by volume increases and rises in unregulated network and interchange fees. Based on CMSPI’s analysis, it is estimated that U.S. merchants paid over $224 billion to interchange, network, and processor fees in 2023. Notably, interchange fees alone amounted to $143 billion, network fees totaled $19 billion, processor fees were $30 billion while three-party card fees summed to $32 billion. $163 billion, or 72%, of total U.S. card fees were incurred on credit cards, whose interchange and network fees remain unregulated (see Section 5.2). Interchange and network fees on single-message debit, where co-badging and routing is widely available, was less than $10 billion of the $224 billion total, despite representing around half of card- present (CP) debit spend.
Total $87.8 $43.2
Credit:
Interchange
Network
Acquirer
Visa
$70.6 $34.8
$7.2 $3.7
$10.0
Mastercard
$4.7
Amex
$27.0
Discover
$4.5
Total
$105.4
$10.9
$14.7
$162.5
Total $14.1 $47.5
Debit:
Interchange
Network
Acquirer
Single-Message Dual-Message
$7.8
$2.0 $6.3
$4.3
$29.8
$11.4
19 CMSPI Estimates and Analysis. 20 Footnote 20 Sources
18 CMSPI analysis of data from Euromonitor, the Federal Reserve, Card Network 10ks, Payments Cards and Mobile, the Wall Street Journal, Digital Transactions, Chain Store Age, PRWeb, Thrifty Traveler, and Merchants Payments Coalition
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