Visa Europe 's promised to reduce credit-card fees has been accepted by European Union regulators in a settlement that ends an antitrust probe dating back more than a decade.

Visa Europe, operator of the EU’s largest payment-card network, will cap so-called interbank fees for processing credit card payments to 0.3 per cent of the value of the transaction for cross-border and domestic payments in Europe for four years, from January 2015.

The commitment will reduce card charges by 40 per cent to 60 per cent.

Card fees charged by Visa Europe and MasterCard Inc. have been probed by European Union regulators since at least 2002.

MasterCard is currently challenging a similar settlement at the EU’s highest court, saying such multilateral interchange fees are crucial for sharing the costs of card payments among banks, retailers and customers.

The agreement "provides legal certainty" and allows the company focus on its payment business "rather than pursuing lengthy legal cases," Nicholas Huss, Visa Europe's chief executive officer, said in a statement.

Visa Europe will also make its pricing more transparent to help retailers compare rates.

A 0.3 per cent cap on credit card fees for payments that customers make in their home nation will be applied after a two- year delay to deter banks switching to cards with higher charges, the EU said.

Bloomberg