In one week of October, Visa cut up to 68 bps of interchange on some Canadian small merchant spend, and Mastercard nearly quadrupled the network fee (also known as a scheme fee) acquirers pay on a CA$5 purchase. One change lands on issuers, the other on acquirers.
Who this is for: Canadian issuers and acquirers, and processors and BIN sponsors with Canadian Visa or Mastercard volume.
Issuers: Visa's October 24 changes
Visa did two things on October 24:
- Cut 22 consumer credit interchange rates, most by 10 bps and Visa Infinite+ rates by 15 bps (Moneris).
- Raised its small merchant program threshold from CA$300,000 to CA$750,000 in annual Visa sales.
The rate cuts are easy to size. Every CA$100 million of affected spend loses about CA$100,000 a year at 10 bps, or CA$150,000 at 15 bps.
The threshold change costs more per merchant. Spend at a merchant with CA$300,000 to CA$750,000 in annual Visa sales that was on Visa's standard Electronic rate can now qualify for the small merchant rate (Visa Canada interchange rates):
- Classic, Gold and Platinum: 1.25% to 0.70%, a 55 bps drop
- Visa Infinite: 1.57% to 0.89%, a 68 bps drop
- Visa Infinite Privilege: 2.08% to 1.70%, a 38 bps drop
On CA$100 million of Visa Infinite in-person spend that moves from the standard Electronic rate to Small Merchant Electronic, that's about CA$680,000 a year. The 68 bps applies only to spend that was on the standard Electronic rate, and eligibility is based on the merchant's total net Visa retail sales volume, not its credit volume alone.
A few things limit the impact. Merchants that surcharge don't qualify, per J.P. Morgan and Fiserv. Merchants already on lower category rates, like grocery or gas, lose less. And Mastercard didn't follow: its small merchant threshold stays at CA$175,000, per CFIB.
One rate went the other way: Visa Business Credit Standard rose from 2.00% to 2.15%. Payments Dive reports Visa is targeting an average of 95 bps for eligible small merchants on domestic in-person consumer credit.
Acquirers: Mastercard's NABU fee from October 19
Mastercard replaced its Acquirer Clearing Fee in Canada with the Acquirer Network Access and Brand Usage (NABU) fee, effective October 19, 2026 (Moneris, J.P. Morgan). The old fee was charged on cleared transactions: USD 0.005 at USD 25 or less and USD 0.0195 above that. NABU is charged on authorizations, before tax:
- USD 0.0195 per domestic authorization
- USD 0.0295 per cross-border authorization
- USD 0.0098 per domestic reversal and USD 0.0148 per cross-border reversal
Account Status Inquiry and Mastercard Wholesale Program transactions are excluded. TabaPay's notice also lists collection-only transactions at the authorization rate. Processors bill it on their own schedules: TabaPay began applying it to activity on November 7, 2026, so the first invoice showing NABU may not line up with the network date.
A domestic transaction over USD 25 with a single approved authorization costs the same as before. The increase lands in four places:
- Small tickets. On 1 million domestic transactions of USD 25 or less, the fee goes from USD 5,000 to USD 19,500.
- Declines. The old fee only applied to cleared transactions. TabaPay's notice says a declined authorization is now charged the same as an approved one.
- Retries. Each retry is charged again, per the same notice.
- Reversals. A reversed authorization is billed twice, once for the authorization and once for the reversal.
Some Canadian processors also add a 13% gross-up for HST they can't recover on network fees. Fiserv bills the domestic authorization at USD 0.0220.
What to check
- Issuers: how much of your Visa credit spend sits at merchants with CA$300,000 to CA$750,000 in annual Visa sales, and which rate it was on before October 24.
- Acquirers: whether the Acquirer Clearing Fee stopped when NABU started, allowing for your processor's own start date, and whether NABU counts match your authorization counts, split by approved, declined and reversed.
- Acquirers: which merchants and flows drive reversals and retries, since both are now a cost line.
The full October tracker, with the complete Canadian rate table and sources: October 2026 Visa and Mastercard fee changes
Sources
- Visa Canada interchange rates
- Moneris: payment card network fee updates
- J.P. Morgan: Canada payment brand changes
- TabaPay: Mastercard NABU fee in Canada
- Fiserv Canada: pass-through fees
- Fiserv Canada: statement messages
- CFIB: Visa lowers interchange fees for small businesses
- Payments Dive: Visa and Mastercard fee changes in Canada