美国、澳大利亚和欧盟规制交换费的动因及其评价

The Motivation of Interchange Fee Regulation among USA,Australia and EU and Its Evaluation

中国已确立银行卡清算市场开放政策,相应地,在市场开放条件下如何对银行卡清算机构实施监管成为一个新的现实课题,其中,对交换费的监管是其重要组成部分。长期维持银行卡清算市场开放的美国、澳大利亚和欧盟自世纪之交起先后不同程度地实施了交换费规制。研究表明,这些国家和地区实施交换费规制的动因要么不合逻辑,要么是对微观经济活动的过度干预,要么实际上是服务于域内主权国家间支付和经济一体化的战略需要;并且,由于理论基础本身不坚实,实际效果也不理想。有鉴于此,在银行卡清算市场走向开放的大趋势下,中国监管机构应考虑逐步放松而不是强化对交换费的直接规制。

China has established its policy for opening the dome stic bank card clearing market.Accordingly, how to supervise the bank card clearing houses in the context of market opening has become a new realistic subject, in which the supervision over the interchange fee is one of the most important ingredients. USA, Australia and European Union, which have been keeping their bank card clearing markets open for a long time, have put into effect one after another the regulation for interchange fees since the beginning of this century. The findings of this study show that the motivations of these regulations implemented by these countries are either illogical, or excessive intervention over microeconomic activities, or actually serving the strategy of payment and economic integration among the sovereign states in the area. In addition, due to the weak theoretical basis, these regulations have not obtained expected results. On that account, the authorities of China should consider relaxing rather than strengthening the direct regulation on interchange fees gradually in the trend of opening up the bank card clearing market.