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The purpose of the Law is to regulate the maximum rate commissions that banks charge merchants for the use of POS when paying with credit and debit cards, and to facilitate the inclusion of Micro and Small Enterprises (MSMEs) and informal commerce in the use of technologies that help increase their sales.
Among the benefits that this regulation will bring, if approved, is the regulation of differentiated rates by type of commerce.
According to the President of the BCR, Douglas Rodríguez, it is important to establish a methodology through a technical norm that individualizes the type of operations and commerce according to international standards, we can be at the level of the Central American region.
For the inclusion of MSMEs and the informal sector to this type of technology, Rodriguez proposed to create a separate regulation that would take into account the category, size and amount of sales of each business, so as not to affect the market. The official said that a fixed rate cannot be established because it would affect small businesses.
Therefore, the simplification of requirements is foreseen so that micro and small businesses and the informal sector can use POS to increase their sales.
The president of the BCR explained that among the requirements that the banking entities request to deliver POS are the Value Added Tax (VAT) declarations, but the informal sector is not registered, so they cannot apply for this benefit to boost their businesses.
By facilitating the requirements for the informal sector, it will be possible to have traceability of transactions, which would allow small businesses and the informal sector of the economy to have a record of their credit history in order to be able to access bank financing.
The interest rates that banks charge for the use of POS currently range from 3% to 8%, depending on the type of business and the volume of sales.
The percentage for the use of POS is divided into an acquiring rate and an interchange rate. The first is the commission charged for the use of the device, while the second is the commission that the acquiring bank (owner of the POS) pays to the issuing bank (in the case of another bank's card) for the use of the POS.
According to BCR data, as of june of this year there were 69,700 POS in the country, more than 3.8 million credit and debit cards and 1,388 million dollars in operations.