The GRTU - Malta Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises, has welcomed the announcement that bank charges on credit/debit cards are now being investigated by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

The association pointed out that it has, for the past few months, been pressing for investigations on the "excessive" charges which is felt the local banks were charging on transactions y local traders and particularly on the excessive charges imposed on retailers on transactions by customers.

Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said last week that the government had referred the issue to the OFT after discussions in the MFSA. The GRTU said that it had itself last year filed a formal complaint on this issue to the OFT.

The GRTU is part of a pan-European lobbying action led by EuroCommerce, the retail, wholesale and international trade representation of the EU, which aims to ensure that traders and retailers in the EU do not continue to suffer excessive charges,.

The EU has already taken action against Visa and MasterCard over charges, the GRTU pointed out.

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