Banxico and regulators revisit card-payment reform: seeking consensus to cut fees without slowing digitalization

Regulators and banks are negotiating a new path to adjust interchange fees in a market that already handles billions of transactions a year.

The debate over the cost of accepting card payments in Mexico is back on the table, now with an explicit goal: to build a “consensus-based” regulatory proposal that addresses banks’ operational concerns while also responding to pressure to lower the charges faced by merchants and consumers. Omar Mejía Castelazo, deputy governor of the Bank of Mexico (Banxico), said authorities are working with the Mexican Bankers Association (ABM) to redefine specific points for a new consultation, including implementation timelines.

The review comes after a previous consultation was withdrawn in February. That earlier proposal sought improvements to the card-payment framework, including a significant reduction in interchange fees—the component that, simply put, compensates the issuing bank for each transaction. The prior plan would have set the fee at 0.6% for credit cards and 0.3% for debit cards, below the maximums observed in the market: Banxico data have shown that credit can reach 1.91% and debit 1.15%.

The issue is sensitive because interchange fees influence the total cost a business pays to accept cards (along with other acquiring and service charges), and therefore can affect small firms’ willingness to take electronic payments. At the same time, a sharp cut can change the industry’s commercial incentives—from rewards programs to risk models and consumer credit—especially in segments with higher delinquency or informality.

In a country where cash still dominates a large share of day-to-day transactions, the discussion is unfolding alongside rapid growth in digital payments. In 2025, 11.261 billion card payments were processed, a 14% annual increase, with debit transactions making up the majority. For regulators, the challenge is to reduce friction and costs without discouraging investment in payment infrastructure, cybersecurity, and fraud prevention.

More competition and lower costs: the potential impact on merchants and prices

Cutting interchange fees is often presented as a way to reduce the cost of accepting cards, particularly for micro and small businesses operating on thin margins. In theory, a lower per-transaction cost could speed up adoption of point-of-sale terminals, improve income traceability, and make it easier to access formal financing by generating a sales history. However, passing those lower costs on to consumers is not automatic: it depends on how competitive retail sectors are, the bargaining power between acquirers and merchants, and the fee structures applied by banks, aggregators, and payment platforms.

From a public-policy standpoint, the design matters as much as the final level. A gradual rollout—one of the points the industry has requested—aims to avoid abrupt changes to business models and to allow the reduction to be absorbed through operational efficiencies, greater scale, and technological improvements. In Mexico’s market, the debate also intersects with a broader agenda of financial inclusion and payment modernization, where cards, instant transfers, digital wallets, and new fintech entrants coexist.

At the same forum where the regulatory issue was discussed, Mejía Castelazo also reported that Banxico has already approved the designs for commemorative coins tied to the FIFA World Cup, which are expected to be ready for the event. As for the new one-peso coins—with a steel core plated in bronze—he said they remain in the minting process and that inventory is still being built up before full entry into circulation, a change linked to production cost efficiencies.

Overall, the renegotiation of the card-payment reform and the operational adjustments in coin issuance reflect the same institutional goal: making the payments system more efficient. The outcome will depend on whether the consensus manages to balance lower costs for merchants with the ecosystem’s operational stability, at a time when the volume of digital transactions continues to grow and Mexico’s economy is demanding higher productivity in financial services.