Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock has ridiculed the nation’s banks and credit card providers, dismissing claims they will cut spending to prevent card fraud in response to plans by the RBA to slash fees paid by shoppers when they use their 60 million credit and debit cards. In some of her strongest ever public comments, Bullock used a parliamentary committee to round on the banks while accusing them of effectively “shooting themselves in the foot” by trying to protect their profit margins and incentives to high-income customers to continue using credit cards. Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock has rejected dire warnings by commercial banks that plans to restrict how much they can charge shops to use credit and debit cards will force them to cut anti-fraud spending. Credit: Alex EllinghausenBanks and providers such as Visa have vigorously pushed back at a plan by the RBA to ban card surcharges by July next year in a move the bank says would save the nation’s shoppers about $1.2 billion a year. The RBA is pushing to lower the cap on interchange fees that businesses have to pay payment service providers (including fintechs such as Square) as well as banks that provide terminal technology.