NMa Obtains Information and Starts Consultation in Investigation into Debit-Card Transactions

The Nederland's Competition Authority (NMa) has published an information and consultation document in relation to its investigation of the banking sector, in general, and electronic payments, in particular. Particular attention is given to network services involving debit-card transactions and the role of Interpay. In the document, NMa pays attention to the characteristics of competition in the banking sector in the Netherlands, but particularly to aspects that play an important role in regulating competition in relation to electronic payments. NMa has given the market players the opportunity to respond to specific questions.

The banking sector in the Netherlands has a number of characteristics which justify NMa's special attention. The degree of concentration is high, the interrelationships between the banks (cross shareholding) are complex, there are high barriers to switching banks as a (business) customer, and new entrants are confronted by higher (financial) barriers to establishing a good reputation, name recognition and developing a network of branches.

Interpay is an important service centre for the payments traffic of Dutch banks. Interpay is the sole supplier in the Netherlands of support services for electronic payments, such as debit-card payments, smart-card payments, credit-card payments and giro transfers. Interpay was set up by and is fully owned by eight banks in the Netherlands, namely ABN-AMRO, Rabobank, ING Bank, Fortis Bank, SNS Bank, Friesland Bank, Van Lanschot Bankiers and Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten.

NMa is investigating whether a dominant position has been abused. If a dominant position exists, it is not permissible to charge excessive tariffs. In addition, a company which has a dominant position may not discriminate between various customers. Different tariffs may only be charged if these can be justified by differences in costs. This aspect was the subject of earlier interlocutory proceedings instituted by Superunie.

In addition, NMa's regulatory activities concentrate on the question of whether competition between the banks which participate in Interpay is limited by this joint venture or whether access to the market is restricted. In this regard, NMa is investigating how the banks co-operate with Interpay and to what extent the banks determine the policy of Interpay.

The consultation document may be obtained from NMa's website and has also been sent to the various parties involved, who have until 25 July to respond to NMa's analyses. After this, NMa will determine what subsequent steps are necessary for the investigation and what the further planning of this will be.