ICICI Bank’s merchant acquiring arm ICICI Merchant Services (IMSL) has waived the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on debit card transactions at all merchants serviced by IMSL. It is effective from November 23, 2016 till December 31, 2016. Further, customers of ICICI Bank will continue to enjoy usage of their debit cards without any charge to them as has always been the case. With this, merchants serviced by IMSL will be able to accept payments on all Visa, Mastercard and RuPay debit cards without any cost to them, thus facilitating greater adoption of card based payments in the country in the wake of the demonetisation move. This announcement comes a day after ICICI Bank waived MDR on RuPay debit cards.
In a bid to encourage cashless transactions, ICICI Bank had announced on November 10, 2016, that it had proactively doubled the usage limits of debit cards of its customers w.e.f. November 10, 2016 till November 30, 2016. ICICI Bank was the first to announce this initiative. The Bank has now extended this benefit for customers till December 31, 2016, encouraging them to adopt cashless transactions.
ICICI Bank is India’s largest private sector bank with consolidated total assets of $138.67 billion as of March 31, 2016. Its subsidiaries include India’s leading private sector insurance companies, securities brokerage firm and mutual fund. The bank’s presence currently spans 17 countries, including India.
