The ANZ Bank has reportedly cut all ties with American Express, following changes to card regulations – which would see banks getting less income from American Express card transactions – and will no longer offer Amex cards, according to a Fairfax report.
Under the changes the “interchange fees” that provided revenue to card issuers like ANZ from July will be capped at 0.8 per cent of a purchase price.
The cap will offer fee relief to many small businesses – not to mention card holders – with research by the Reserve Bank finding small businesses pay almost five times more on average for a transaction than big businesses, due to discounts on offer for high volumes of transactions.
A spokesman for ANZ said the bank had stopped offering American Express “companion cards” with new rewards credit card accounts from March 1.
Existing ANZ customers can keep using their existing ANZ Amex card until August 5 with no change to the number of rewards points they will earn on eligible purchases. Other lenders are likely to follow suit in scaling back rewards, according to online comparison site Mozo.
