The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has spent eighteen months turning over the rocks under UK card payments. In December 2025 it consulted on two binding remedies aimed at how Visa and Mastercard set and disclose scheme fees, and in spring 2026 it opened a third on regulatory financial reporting. For UK merchants, the regulation itself is the slow story. The quicker story is what to ask your acquirer this quarter, while the conversation is open.

What the PSR has actually decided

The PSR's market review of card scheme and processing fees concluded that Visa and Mastercard face limited competitive pressure, that their fees have risen materially since 2017, and that acquirers (and therefore merchants) lack the information needed to challenge them. The remedies now in train address the symptoms in three layers:

  • Information, transparency and complexity (ITC): schemes must give acquirers clear, structured pricing information so a fee can be tied to the transaction that triggered it, and reconciled in a billing period without guesswork.
  • Pricing governance: any new or revised UK scheme or processing fee must follow a defined pricing decision principle, with evidence retained and made available to the PSR on demand.
  • Regulatory financial reporting: the PSR is consulting in Q2 2026 on direct reporting of UK scheme profitability, the workstream that, in time, gives the regulator the data to test whether fees are reasonable.

Once final directions land, the PSR has signalled up to twelve months for implementation. The practical day-to-day impact on UK acquiring statements is a 2026 to 2027 story, not a same-quarter one.

Why most UK merchants never see the headline numbers

Here is the structural problem the regulator is trying to fix. Scheme fees are charged by Visa and Mastercard to the acquirer, not directly to the merchant. On a blended pricing arrangement, the merchant pays a single all-in rate, and any scheme fee changes are absorbed (or quietly recovered) by the acquirer. On the smaller minority of UK merchant accounts that use IC++ pricing, scheme fees pass through visibly, line by line.

The PSR's own figures suggested Mastercard and Visa increased core scheme and processing fees by at least 25% since 2017, an increase the industry estimates added at least £170 million a year to UK costs. Almost none of that surfaced as a line on an SME's statement. It surfaced as a slow drift in effective rates that very few merchants ever spotted, because nobody told them to look.

Three questions to put to your acquirer this quarter

You do not need to wait for the PSR's directions to take effect. The substance of the new regime is already a useful framework for asking your acquirer the right questions now:

  • How are scheme and processing fees currently charged to me? On blended pricing, the candid answer is "you do not see them; they are absorbed in your rate". That is fine, but you should know it before judging the deal.
  • Can you show me my last 12 months on IC++ instead? A reputable acquirer can model your real card mix on an interchange-plus basis and show you the all-in result. For higher-volume, premium-card or B2B businesses, IC++ frequently wins. For smaller, debit-heavy retailers, blended usually still wins. The right answer depends on your data.
  • If Visa or Mastercard raise scheme fees mid-contract, what happens to my rate? Most UK acquiring contracts include a pass-through clause that lets the acquirer raise prices on 30 days' notice. Some do not. Some apply a margin on top of the pass-through, others do not. Knowing the answer beats finding out by surprise.

Where IC++ helps, and where it does not

IC++ pricing aligns the merchant's incentives with the regulator's transparency push. Interchange is the wholesale cost set by the schemes. Scheme fees are the second "plus". The acquirer's margin is the third. On an IC++ statement you can read each one off independently, and you can argue the third one without arguing the first two. That is the right shape for any business large enough to read it well.

What IC++ does not do is make scheme fees go down. Whatever Visa and Mastercard charge, IC++ surfaces. If the PSR's remedies eventually slow the rate of scheme fee inflation, every IC++ merchant benefits directly. Every blended merchant benefits too, but indirectly, and only if their acquirer chooses to pass the saving back.

How Monek approaches this

Monek is FCA-authorised in our own right (FRN 920628), and we offer both transparent blended pricing from 0.99% for typical UK SMEs and IC++ from 0.49% above £200k a year. We will model your last 12 months on either basis, on your real data, before you sign anything. If your business profile says blended wins, we will tell you. If IC++ wins, the line-by-line transparency the PSR is fighting for is already on your statement today, rather than at the end of a 12 month implementation window.

If you would like a 30 minute conversation about which pricing model actually fits your business in 2026, and how to read your current statement against the PSR's new transparency benchmarks, our team will run the numbers at no cost and tell you candidly where you stand.