Circular Letter No. 3917 — Establishes the method for monitoring maximum interchange fee limits in domestic, purchase, and demand deposit account payment arrangements

The Head of the Department of Banking Operations and Payment Systems (Deban), acting in substitution, under the authority granted by Article 23, item I, letter “a”, of the Internal Regulations of the Central Bank of Brazil, annexed to Ordinance No. 84,287 of February 27, 2015, based on the provisions of Article 21 of the Regulation annexed to Circular Letter No. 3,682 of November 4, 2013, as amended by Circular Letter No. 3,815 of December 7, 2016,

RESOLVES:

Art. 1. The method for monitoring, by the Deban, of the maximum limits for the interchange fee in payment arrangements included in the domestic Brazilian Payment System (SPB), purchase, and demand deposit account arrangements, as established by Circular Letter No. 3,887 of March 26, 2018, is hereby established.

Sole Paragraph. The payment arrangements included in the SPB referred to in the main text include authorized arrangements and those that submitted an authorization request in accordance with Article 16 of the Regulation annexed to Circular Letter No. 3,682 of 2013.

Art. 2. For the calculation of the maximum limits for the interchange fee, information provided by the issuers of payment arrangements included in the SPB shall be used, in accordance with Circular Letter No. 3,911 of September 27, 2018.

Art. 3. The maximum limit for the interchange fee, established for the average of the interchange fee, weighted by the value of transactions (weighted average of the interchange fee), shall be monitored through the fields “Effective Interchange Fee” and “Value of Transactions”, in accordance with the information on payment transactions and fees contained in Annex I to Circular Letter No. 3,911 of 2018.

§ 1. The weighted average of the interchange fee shall be calculated quarterly, observing the calendar year.

§ 2. For each assessment period, the average of the interchange fee reported in the “Effective Interchange Fee” field, weighted by the value of transactions reported in the “Value of Transactions” field, shall be calculated.

§ 3. During the first three quarters of the validity of Circular Letter No. 3,887 of 2018, the weighted average of the interchange fee shall be calculated as follows:

I - for the fourth quarter of 2018, only information sent in that quarter shall be considered;

II - for the first quarter of 2019, information sent in that quarter and in the fourth quarter of 2018 shall be considered;

III - for the second quarter of 2019, information sent in that quarter, in the first quarter of 2019, and in the fourth quarter of 2018 shall be considered.

§ 4. In the quarters following the period referred to in item III of § 3, information sent in the last four quarters ending at the end of the quarter under assessment shall be considered.

§ 5. For the calculation of the weighted average of the interchange fee, transactions with corporate cards possibly reported in the “Product” field, nor non-presence transactions possibly reported in the “Capture Method” field, shall not be considered, as determined by § 2 of Article 2 of Circular Letter No. 3,887 of 2018.

§ 6. The weighted average of the interchange fee shall be expressed in percentage terms, with two decimal places and mathematical rounding.

Art. 4. The maximum limit for the interchange fee established for each transaction, in accordance with item II of Article 2 of Circular Letter No. 3,887 of 2018, shall be monitored through the “Effective Interchange Fee” field, in accordance with the information on payment transactions and fees contained in Annex I to Circular Letter No. 3,911 of 2018.

Art. 5. This Circular Letter enters into force on the date of its publication.

Fabio Martins Trajano de Arruda