Payment card interchange fees and settlement — how direct acquiring makes the split visible.
Interchange, scheme fees and the acquirer margin are three separate components of every card payment. BazPay's interchange++ reporting shows each one per settled charge, so the fee arithmetic your finance team runs matches the fee flow on the scheme cycle. Nothing gets blended, nothing gets hidden.
Built for merchants across the EU, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand: e-commerce sellers, subscription software firms and professional-services businesses. Direct regional acquirer, named MID, EUR settlement to your settlement account — regulated interchange caps applied by scheme rules and reported as they land.
Why merchants pick a direct regional acquirer for transparent interchange
Interchange is not an opaque cost with a single acquirer that treats it as one. Four properties keep the fee flow legible on BazPay from day one.
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Every fee visible on every settled transaction
Interchange (to the issuer), scheme fees (to the card network) and the acquirer margin appear as separate lines on every settled charge. There is no blended headline rate hiding one at the expense of another.
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Regional regulatory caps applied by scheme rules
Consumer card interchange for the region-domestic transactions is capped under the regional Interchange Fee Regulation (regulated interchange, regional 2015/751). BazPay reports the actual scheme-set rate applied per charge, so the cap is auditable rather than assumed.
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Finance-team reconciliation against the source
CSV exports and signed settlement webhooks carry the same fee split as the dashboard. Your ledger reconciles against per-transaction interchange, not against a monthly summary that could have moved between billing cycles.
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Direct acquirer, no middleman markup
BazPay is the acquirer for its regional book — there is no reseller layer adding an opaque margin between scheme fees and the merchant. Named MID, clean chargeback attribution, one contract.
The four components of a payment card interchange fee settlement
A card payment carries fees at every hop between the shopper's bank and the merchant's bank account. Below is the structure — with a plain-language name for each layer and who ends up receiving that share.
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Interchange
Interchange fee (issuer's share)
Paid by the acquirer to the shopper's issuing bank on every card transaction. Consumer credit and debit interchange for domestic the region transactions is capped under the regional Interchange Fee Regulation. Commercial cards and cross-border interchange are not regulated interchange-capped and can carry higher rates.
- Consumer credit (capped in the region)
- Consumer debit (capped in the region)
- Commercial (not regulated interchange-capped)
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Scheme fees
Scheme / network fees
Paid to the card scheme (Visa, Mastercard, Cartes Bancaires, eftpos) for using the network infrastructure. Scheme fees are set by the scheme, published in scheme bulletins and passed through on an interchange++ statement.
- Assessment fee
- Network access
- Cross-border where applicable
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Acquirer margin
Acquirer / gateway margin (BazPay)
BazPay's own margin — the fee for authorisation, settlement, tokenisation, fraud tooling, dispute handling and reporting. Shown as a distinct line on every settled charge so you know exactly which component pays for what.
- Gateway
- Acquiring
- Reporting
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Settlement
Settlement flow to your settlement account
After the scheme settles to the acquirer, funds move from BazPay's acquiring balance to your local settlement account through SEPA Instant. Settlement events fire signed webhooks so the merchant ledger closes automatically per scheme cycle.
- EUR to your settlement account
- Per scheme cycle
- Signed webhook
The acquiring contract that carries the settlement lives on merchant acquiring. Method depth on card and APM processing. Bank-rail context on Single Euro Payments Area processing.
From authorisation to merchant settlement, with fees at every stage
Six stages describe the round trip from an approved card charge to net funds in your bank account. The scheme rulebook determines the interchange rate; BazPay reports it as it lands.
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Authorise
The card charge posts to the acquirer with the 3-D Secure 2 result bound. The issuer decides yes or no; interchange rate assigned by scheme rules.
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Clear
Scheme clearing moves the transaction from authorised to captured with the interchange bucket recorded on the trailing scheme file.
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Fee assessment
The scheme applies interchange, assessment and network access fees per its published rulebook. BazPay applies its acquirer margin per your contract.
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Scheme → acquirer
Scheme settles net funds to the acquirer's regional balance on the scheme cycle. Each transaction retains its own fee breakdown.
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Acquirer → merchant
BazPay settles net funds to your local settlement account over SEPA Instant per the payout schedule you set. A signed payout webhook fires.
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Reconcile
The interchange++ statement lands in the dashboard, the CSV export and the payout event with the same per-transaction breakdown.
Interchange++ vs blended pricing on credit card interchange fees
Interchange++ presents the three components separately; blended pricing folds them into one number. Both are legal and both are common; the honest choice depends on whether you want the arithmetic visible.
| Dimension | BazPay (interchange++) | Blended pricing |
|---|---|---|
| Fee visibility | Interchange, scheme fees and margin split per charge | Blended headline rate |
| Regulated interchange caps | Applied and reported per scheme rules | Absorbed into the blended rate |
| Cross-border cards | Actual rate applied and reported | Marked-up flat rate |
| Settlement | Per scheme cycle to your local settlement account | Aggregated payout, common delay |
| Reconciliation surface | Dashboard, CSV, signed webhook | Monthly PDF summary |
| Contract holder | Direct with the regional acquirer | Reseller PSP on aggregated MID |
Buyer's shortlist on payment processors. Underlying platform primitives on payment infrastructure.
Reporting features that make interchange auditable
Every capability below ships on the standard integration. There is no premium tier for the fee split, the CSV export or the signed webhook.
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Interchange++ pricing
Interchange, scheme fees and acquirer margin all pass through as separate lines. No blended rate that would hide movements between components.
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Per-transaction breakdown
Every settled charge carries its own interchange amount, scheme-fee amount and margin — visible in the dashboard, the export and the webhook.
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Regulated-interchange-aware reporting
For the region-domestic consumer card transactions, the reported interchange reflects the regulated interchange-capped rate applied by the scheme. Cross-border and commercial rows show the actual applied rate.
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Signed settlement webhooks
HMAC-signed payout events carry the aggregate settled amount, the transaction list and the fee breakdown. One handler closes the ledger per scheme cycle.
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CSV export
Export any date range or view as CSV. Push the file into your data warehouse without a custom ETL to reconcile interchange per SKU or per plan.
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Real-time analytics
Approvals, declines and interchange bucket visible within seconds — see the fee impact of a new market or new BIN mix before the scheme cycle closes.
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Named MID per merchant
Fees, chargebacks and settlement lines are attributed to your legal entity — never diluted across an aggregator's pool.
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GDPR + In-region data residency
Payment data stays in regional processing regions. A DPA is available on request, so a finance-and-compliance review of settlement flows is straightforward.
The fee split lands on the settlement webhook
Every settled charge carries the interchange, scheme-fee and acquirer-margin fields. Wire your ledger to read them from the signed webhook payload — the same numbers your dashboard shows and your CSV export contains.
BazPay-Signature: t=1717257600,
v1=8b3f1c...9d2e
{
"id": "evt_02H9",
"type": "charge.settled",
"data": {
"object": {
"id": "ch_5F9k",
"amount": 4990,
"currency": "EUR",
"network": "visa",
"interchange": 12,
"scheme_fees": 4,
"acquirer_margin": 45
}
}
}Amounts are minor units (cents). Aggregate payout events fire per scheme cycle with the same fields totalled. Full schema in the API reference, handler samples in the developer docs.
Where interchange++ reporting earns its place
The four merchant profiles below rely on BazPay's per-transaction fee split. Each uses the same interchange++ statement and signed webhook stream.
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Finance teams closing the book monthly
Interchange++ line detail per settled charge means the ledger reconciles against the source, not against a vendor's summary that could have shifted mid-cycle.
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High-volume merchants tuning the mix
Sellers with meaningful volume across BIN countries and card types benefit from visibility on where fees actually land, per market and per card product.
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Subscription businesses on card-on-file
SaaS and membership renewals accumulate small charges over long horizons; interchange++ makes the fee arithmetic on those long-tail books legible.
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Professional-services firms on B2B invoices
Higher-ticket B2B invoicing where commercial-card interchange is non-trivial — the exact rate applied is reported, not blended.
Out of scope for BazPay: adult, gambling, CBD, nutraceutical, forex, CFD, crypto-exchange, debt-collection and MLM. BazPay is not a party to any US federal-court interchange antitrust litigation and cannot file US claims on any merchant's behalf.
Regulatory and compliance context around interchange
Consumer interchange on the region-domestic transactions is capped by the regional Interchange Fee Regulation (regional 2015/751). Card handling runs inside a PCI DSS Level 1 environment assessed each year, authentication runs on every card charge via 3-D Secure 2.2, and regional data residency is default under GDPR.
- Regional Interchange Fee Regulation
- Consumer credit and debit interchange caps applied by scheme rules on the region-domestic transactions
- PCI DSS Level 1
- Annual assessment on the acquiring and gateway environment
- Merchant SAQ A
- Hosted fields and gateway vault keep card data out of your stack
- Authentication
- 3-D Secure 2.2 with automatic exemption logic on every card charge
- GDPR
- In-region data residency; DPA on request
Questions about payment card interchange fees and settlement
What is a payment card interchange fee, and who pays it to whom?
Interchange is a per-transaction fee paid by the acquirer (the merchant's bank) to the issuer (the shopper's bank) on every card payment. The card scheme sets the rate under its published rulebook. In the region, consumer credit and debit interchange on domestic transactions is capped under regional Regulation 2015/751 (the Interchange Fee Regulation, or regulated interchange). Commercial cards and most cross-border interchange are not regulated interchange-capped.
How does BazPay's payment card interchange fee settlement work in practice?
Card charges clear on the scheme cycle. The scheme settles net funds to BazPay as the acquirer with the interchange rate applied per its rulebook. BazPay then settles net funds to your local settlement account through SEPA Instant on the payout schedule you set, and reports the interchange, scheme fee and acquirer margin as separate lines per settled charge on the interchange++ statement.
What is the difference between interchange++ and a blended credit card interchange fees rate?
Interchange++ passes interchange, scheme fees and the acquirer margin through as separate lines. A blended rate presents one headline number that absorbs all three components, which can hide movements between them (a scheme-fee increase, for example, can be masked by a small margin reduction). Interchange++ is transparent by construction; blended pricing is easier at day one but harder to audit later.
How much interchange should I expect on a regional card charge?
Actual interchange varies by scheme, card product, region and merchant category. For the region-domestic consumer transactions, the regulated interchange caps apply under the scheme rulebooks. Commercial cards and cross-border charges typically carry higher rates. BazPay's dashboard and CSV export show the exact rate the scheme applied to every charge — the honest answer to "how much" is always: check your own interchange++ statement, not a headline number.
What is "In re Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation"?
That is a class-action lawsuit filed in the United States federal courts against Visa, Mastercard and several US-based card issuers over interchange practices in the US market. It has been the subject of long-running settlement negotiations administered by court-appointed claims administrators in the US. BazPay is not a party to that litigation, is not the settlement administrator and has no role in the US claims process.
Is the payment card interchange fee settlement legit, and how much will I get if I file a claim?
The US class-action settlement itself is a genuine, court-supervised process. Whether any given merchant qualifies and what any given claim is worth is determined by the court-appointed claims administrator based on your US card-acceptance history, not by a payment gateway. Verify claim eligibility and processing only through the official court-approved settlement website and be cautious of unsolicited third-party services that offer to "file for you" for a share of the recovery. BazPay cannot advise on a US claim.
Does BazPay help with US class-action claims for interchange refunds?
No. BazPay is a regional payment gateway and direct regional acquirer operated by NEWERA PAYMENT TECHNOLOGIES LTD. Our reporting and settlement cover the transactions you process on BazPay in-region. We are not a claims filer, do not act on your behalf in US federal court and cannot represent any merchant in the US antitrust litigation.
Which merchant types can board on BazPay's transparent interchange++ pricing?
Merchants across the EU, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand: e-commerce sellers, subscription software firms, professional-services businesses and digital publishers. BazPay does not board adult, gambling, CBD, nutraceutical, forex, CFD, crypto-exchange, debt-collection or MLM merchants, and is not a merchant of record or a marketplace of third-party PSPs.
Move card acceptance to interchange++ transparency
Share your monthly card volume and card-mix profile. A named engineer will walk the expected fee structure and confirm boarding fit inside one working day. See also pricing, merchant acquiring and payouts.