In a letter to Visa’s chairman issued by the Electronic Transaction Association on Wednesday, the merchant acquiring industry group called upon the card network to delay implementation of its recently announced Fixed Acquirer Network Fee (FANF). Visa announced the fee to its acquiring partners in early February with an effective date for implementation of April 1. The letter goes on to indicated that Visa still has not released detailed guidance on how the FANF should be implemented by acquirer processors.
From the letter:
The lack of advance notice regarding this new fee structure, the severely short time frame for implementation, and the complexity of the FANF requirement make for a trifecta of negative impact to the acquiring, processing, and merchant communities. In light of these facts, ETA requests that Visa revisit its approach to implementation of the Fixed Acquirer Network Fee.
The Association requests that Visa delay implementation of the FANF until all of the implementing guidance has been issued by Visa and complete information is available to merchant acquirers, processors, and merchants. Furthermore, ETA requests to know the date upon which full details for implementation of the FANF will be available from Visa and that the FANF directive take effect 90 days after this date.
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