Mexico’s central bank (Banxico) and the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) proposed updated regulations establishing phased caps on credit and debit card interchange fees to lower merchant costs and boost digital payment adoption. The revised framework sets maximum individual credit card interchange fees at 1.30% and caps non-credit transactions at MX$10.80 (US$0.63), replacing a steeper initial proposal following public consultations. This regulatory shift affects commercial banks, fintech acquirers, payment processors, and millions of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) transitioning toward a cashless economy.
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Banco de México (Banxico) and the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) proposed updated regulations establishing phased caps on credit and debit card interchange fees. The draft rules for payment card network operations aim to reduce merchant processing costs, enhance market competition, and accelerate digital payment acceptance across commercial sectors.
The revised proposal adjusts an initial regulatory draft presented by financial authorities in October 2025, which outlined a stricter 0.60% cap on credit card transactions. Following feedback during the initial public consultation, Banxico and CNBV raised the maximum individual credit card cap to 1.30% and incorporated a gradual transition period. Regulators noted that the modified approach seeks to lower transaction costs for merchants while providing operational flexibility for financial institutions, aligning with recommendations from the Federal Economic Competition Commission (COFECE) to remove entry barriers that historically favored established market incumbents.
Interchange fees represent the fee paid by acquiring institutions—the entities processing payments for merchants—to card issuers for each transaction. Although interchange fees are not billed directly to consumers, acquiring institutions factor these costs into the merchant discount rates (tasas de descuento) charged to businesses. High transaction costs have traditionally served as a primary barrier to card acceptance among micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). Approximately 3.2 million MSMEs in Mexico currently lack card processing capabilities, even as cash usage at physical points of sale is projected to decline from 40% in 2025 to 35% by 2030.
Multi-Year Implementation and Market Impact
The proposed regulatory framework establishes a multi-year transition schedule for card issuers. In the first phase, individual credit card interchange fees will be capped at 1.65% per transaction, while non-credit card fees—covering debit and prepaid cards—will be capped at MX$12.80 (US$0.75). After 12 months, individual transaction limits will drop to 1.40% for credit cards and MX$11.80 (US$0.69) for non-credit cards, before reaching final maximums of 1.30% and MX$10.80 (US$0.63), respectively.
In addition to per-transaction limits, the regulation introduces caps on an issuer’s total accumulated interchange fees measured over a 12-month period. For credit cards, annual accumulated fee caps will decrease from 1.20% of total operated value at 24 months to 1.10% at 36 months, settling at a final ceiling of 1.00%. Annual accumulated caps for non-credit cards will follow a parallel timeline, stepping down from 0.40% to 0.35% before reaching a permanent target of 0.30%.
Under the proposal, card issuers may continue to establish differentiated fee structures based on specific transaction categories, provided pricing is justified by real and verifiable operational costs and does not exceed established caps. The draft regulation is currently subject to public consultation, allowing Banxico and CNBV to make further adjustments prior to final enactment.
Regulatory efforts to reduce interchange friction align with broader trends in Mexico’s financial ecosystem, where card-not-present transaction volumes reached a record eight billion approved operations in 2025 and contactless point-of-sale adoption expanded by over 170%, highlighting the industry’s shift toward payment interoperability, operational scale, and lower transaction costs.