Australia's first acquirer fee tables land today: the interchange pass-through test begins

TL;DR: Today, Friday 30 October 2026, large Australian acquirers must publish their first quarterly merchant service fee tables, covering the quarter ended 30 September. These tables create a comparable starting point, not proof that the 1 October interchange reductions have reached merchants: the first formal pass-through measure is due on 30 January 2027. For payments operators, the test is whether new public benchmarks change how providers explain pricing, compete and demonstrate value.

What is due today, and what will the first tables tell us?

Today’s release is a baseline of merchant service fees, not a verdict on pass-through. Under the RBA’s reforms, acquirers processing more than $10 billion in annual eftpos, Mastercard and Visa transactions directly for merchants must publish Table 21 for the quarter ended 30 September 2026. The first publication is due today; later quarterly tables are due within 30 days of quarter-end. The RBA will republish the data, and acquirers must keep it on their websites until 30 September 2028.

Table 21 reports merchant service fees as a percentage of transactions across three merchant groups: all direct merchants, small merchants processing $1 million or less annually, and medium merchants processing more than $1 million and up to $10 million. Each group is broken down by domestic card-present and card-not-present debit and prepaid, domestic card-present and card-not-present credit, foreign debit and prepaid, and foreign credit.

This is significant because the first reporting quarter ended before the domestic interchange changes took effect on 1 October. Its value is as a common reference point. It will not, by itself, show whether a particular provider has passed savings to a particular customer.

The threshold and exclusions matter for operators building reporting processes. Payment facilitator volumes are excluded from the threshold unless the PayFac is a related entity of the acquirer. Self-acquired transactions are also excluded. Even where an acquirer charges one rate across multiple categories, it must report each required category.

Why is Table 21 a benchmark, not a merchant quote?

Table 21 shows category averages, not every merchant’s negotiated rate or the price an individual business should expect to pay. Its purpose is to support comparison by merchant size and transaction type. It is a reference point for market positioning, not a substitute for a customer-specific quote.

That distinction is central to how acquirers and PSPs should interpret the release. An average for small merchants may help a provider understand its relative position, but it cannot capture every merchant’s card mix, sales profile, pricing plan or commercial terms. Nor does the table reveal the full cost of accepting payments for an individual merchant.

Designated networks are also due to publish Tables 15–20, covering interchange, acquiring scheme fees and rebates, and issuing scheme fees and rebates. These are broken down by card type, presentment channel, tokenisation and domestic versus foreign-issued cards. Read together, the disclosures offer more visibility into different layers of the payment cost stack. They do not turn those layers into a single universal merchant price.

When will the formal interchange pass-through test arrive?

The first formal pass-through measure is due on 30 January 2027, not today. Large acquirers will report the change in average merchant service fees divided by the change in average interchange fees, multiplied by 100. The reference period is 1 July to 30 September 2026.

Operators should diarise the four reporting deadlines: 30 January, 30 April, 30 July and 30 October 2027. Each measure compares the relevant reporting period against that July–September 2026 reference. The first deadline covers the quarter to 31 December 2026; subsequent deadlines extend the measurement period through 31 March, 30 June and 30 September 2027.

Those dates create a sequence, rather than a one-day pass/fail test. They will give the industry a more direct measure of how average merchant service fees change against average interchange fees over time. Interpreting the result still requires care: a market-level measure does not tell each merchant exactly how much of a wholesale reduction appeared in their own bill.

What does the early rate evidence say, and what does it not say?

Publicly visible rate changes suggest that pass-through is already uneven, but headline rates are not the formal test. The Compayr Pass-Through Tracker, last checked on 27–28 October, found that 7 of 20 tracked popular Australian card plans had reduced published rates after the 1 October change.

The tracker records reductions including Westpac from 1.2% to 0.79%, CommBank Smart from 1.10% to 0.99%, NAB from 1.15% to 1.05%, ANZ Worldline from 1.10% to 0.95%, Zeller POS from 1.4% to 1.2%, Shopify POS from 1.95% to 1.85%, and Stripe online from 1.70% to 1.65%, with its 30-cent fixed fee unchanged. Shopify also announced online rate cuts.

No change was announced for tracked plans including Square, Zeller in-person, Tyro, SumUp, PayPal, Eway, Pin Payments, Airwallex and Lightspeed. CommBank says its Interchange Plus and Plus Plus plans pass reductions through automatically; those plans behave differently from flat-rate offers.

These figures are indicative, not a complete market census. Compayr earns referral fees and its tracker does not capture terminal rentals or switching costs. It also compares headline rates: flat-rate plans and interchange-plus plans work differently, and headline movements are only part of the cost picture. A lower percentage does not necessarily mean a lower total cost for every merchant.

The distinction matters for the wider retail payment strategy. The RBA estimates that the interchange cut will save merchants $910 million per year. But evidence of a published rate reduction is not the same as evidence of the full saving reaching every merchant. Likewise, unchanged public pricing does not disclose all individually negotiated terms.

How will transparency change PSP and acquirer positioning?

The disclosure regime makes pricing a more visible part of provider competition. At the AFIA conference in Sydney on 20 October, RBA payments chief Ellis Connolly described three aims: the advertised price should be the price paid, merchant costs should fall, and fee disclosure should help merchants decide “are they getting a reasonable deal from their payment service provider, or is it time to look around for a better deal?” He noted that 75% of Australian payments are made by card.

For providers, that is effectively an invitation to make value clearer. Sales conversations are likely to rely more on explaining who a pricing plan suits, what its published fee includes and how its pricing compares with relevant benchmarks. For PayFacs, ISOs and PSPs, clearer statement data may also give customers more detail to use when requesting or assessing a quote.

The statement changes add another operational milestone. New required fields include network, channel, transaction value and count, merchant service fees in dollars and as a percentage, and domestic versus foreign splits. The rules took effect on 1 October, but statements issued from 1 October 2026 through 31 March 2027 may use either the old or new format. Full compliance applies from the first full statement period after 1 April 2027.

That same date is the context for foreign-card interchange caps. It is one of the practical checkpoints operators should plan for alongside the statement transition. For more background on the reform package, see what Australia’s October 2026 card reforms mean for merchants. For a strategic view of the next steps, see how to build a post-surcharge retail payment strategy.

FAQ: What operators need to know about the fee tables

What is the deadline for Australia’s first acquirer fee tables?

Large acquirers must publish their first quarterly merchant service fee tables by Friday 30 October 2026. The tables cover the quarter ended 30 September 2026.

Do today’s tables prove that interchange savings reached merchants?

No. The first tables show average merchant service fees for a pre-change reference quarter. The first formal interchange pass-through measure is due on 30 January 2027.

Will Table 21 show a merchant’s individual rate?

No. It reports average fees by merchant size and transaction category. It is a benchmark for comparison, not a quote or disclosure of each merchant’s individual terms.

When must new merchant statement fields be fully compliant?

Statements issued through 31 March 2027 may use either the old or new format. Full compliance applies from the first full statement period after 1 April 2027.

Key takeaway

Today’s tables establish the first hard, comparable public baseline for large acquirers. They are not the final answer on interchange pass-through: that evidence starts arriving in January. Operators should treat the disclosures as a new competitive reference point, prepare for the statement changes, and be ready to explain what their pricing delivers beyond a headline rate.