The Association of Point of Sale Service Providers has threatened to suspend the acceptance and processing of Verve card transactions if the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission fail to intervene against what it described as persistent unlawful conduct by Verve International and Interswitch Limited.

In a statement issued by Communications Consultant Yomi Idowu, the association accused Verve International and Interswitch of maintaining an exclusive monopoly over Verve transaction processing, abusing their dominant position in the domestic card scheme market in violation of Section 72 of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2018, imposing scheme fees in excess of the regulated Merchant Service Commission share attributable to acquirers, and making unauthorized debits from settlement accounts of acquirers, processors, and switches.

The association said its members had contributed significantly to building the acceptance and growth of Verve cards at considerable cost and without any subsidy from Verve or Interswitch, and noted that other card scheme operators had already abolished all forms of exclusivity in compliance with CBN regulations. It said it would have no option but to suspend Verve card acquiring, processing, and switching unless the regulators intervened to address the alleged breaches.