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MasterCard, Visa got no official inquiries from antimonopoly regulator

MOSCOW, November 24. /TASS/. Visa and MasterCard international payment system have not yet received official inquiries from the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) regarding high transfer charges, press services of companies told TASS on Thursday.

Russian businessmen reported to the regulator that charges when making transfers via Visa and MasterCard systems are too high, a FAS representative told TASS earlier today.

"Visa has not received any formal inquiries on that topic. We should clarify in the first instance that Visa does not impose charges on trade and service companies and cardholders for use of services of its processing network; trade and service companies are paying a "merchant service fee" to the acquirer bank. The interbank charge amount determined by Visa is calculated in a way to ensure balance among system participants," Visa said.

MasterCard also said it "has not received formal inquiries" from FAS. "We want to point out we are working and will continue working with enterprises and trading companies of any scale," press service of the international payment system said.