ARLINGTON, Va. — The Food Marketing Institute here last week praised the Reserve Bank of Australia for preserving rules that govern charge card interchange fees in that country.

The reforms previously instituted by RBA “have increased transparency and competition and lowered the rates — now saving Australian retailers and consumers more than $1 billion a year,” Jennifer Hatcher, FMI’s group vice president of government relations, said in a prepared statement on Friday. “Americans deserve this same relief.”

RBA reforms instituted from 2003–2006 brought the average fee down from 0.95% to 0.5%, FMI said, and noted that competition between the Visa and MasterCard networks has led to rates as low as 0.3% for credit card transactions and a flat fee of 3.6 cents for debit card payments. U.S. fees average about 2% per transaction, FMI said.

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