Taxa de intercâmbio e integração de redes no mercado brasileiro de cartões de crédito: uma discussão teórica.

This article discusses the structure of the Brazilian credit card industry after the introduction of network interoperability and the end of exclusivity contracts between the credit card company and acquiring agents. To this end, the article exposes a stringent presentation of the mathematical models that characterize the credit card industry as a two-sided market, in which the relation between merchants and their banks have effects on the relationship between card users and their banks, and vice versa. Using those models, the article rigorously discusses the role of the interchange fee, the price that unites the two sides of the market, as a balancing factor in the credit card industry under different competition structures. Finally, and in light of the conclusions arising from the models, recent changes in the Brazilian card market are analyzed, demonstrating that greater competition promoted by the integration of networks of different card brand tends to increase the social welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]