Rwanda’s National bank (BNR) has warned businesses with Point Of Sale devices against charging transactional fees to customer who use electronic cards terming it illegal.
In a statement , the central bank corporate communications expert Doreen Makumi, said that hey have identified a number of businesses doing this but they did not however name the businesses.
“BNR has ‘taken action’ by reminding them of the regulation that prohibits surcharging customers making payments using POS,” she said.
Makumi said that BNR can only caution the culprits, but does not supervise merchants directly.
“When we discover merchants imposing fees on customers, we warn and report them to the bank which owns the POS.We advise the bank to follow up on the case and it is the bank which is subject to sanctions once it does not respect BNR regulations,” she explained.
There were over 1,057 POS devices in the market as at June last year, an increase from 99 in 2010, according BNR statistics and outlawing transaction fees was introduced to encourage the use of POS devices, which are important in promoting a cashless economy.
The devices are mainly used by merchants like hotels, supermarkets, restaurants, and tour and travel agents and are owned by commercial banks, which partner with various POS agents to allow clients pay using electronic cards such as VISA and Smart Cash cards.