This solution empowers payment providers and merchants to estimate card transaction costs — including Interchange and Scheme fees — without needing access to transactional data.
As European regulators continue to focus on improving pricing transparency in the payments market, this tool responds to a growing demand for accessible, data-based forecasting and transparency. Fee structures have grown increasingly complex, and both payment providers and merchants often face challenges when understanding how card origin and consumer behaviour impact final costs.
“Both payment service providers and merchants themselves want to better understand the economics behind their fees, and until now, this clarity hasn’t always been easy to access. With this tool, we’re offering a simple, data-based way to model likely costs — before committing to any agreements. It works by generating expected card fees from just a few inputs — like country, card mix, and average ticket size — giving merchants early visibility into their potential expenses,” said Kiril Lisitsyn, CEO of Torus.
One example illustrates how much card fees can vary depending on merchant profile. Two supermarkets with the same average transaction size showed nearly a 3x difference in Scheme fees — driven solely by differences in cardholder origin. This type of insight helps businesses factor in variables that are often overlooked, leading to more informed planning and pricing strategies.
The Merchant Cost Indicator is accessible through both Torus’ web-based UI and API.
Earlier our products focused on profitability analytics for acquirers and issuers, as well as invoice-level fee tracking. The launch of Merchant Cost Indicator extends our reach to merchants themselves, helping to foster more transparency and collaboration in the payments ecosystem.
