&gt; From the article: &quot;Banks say interchange fees help cover the cost of fraud. Retailers argue that fees should therefore decrease if fraud is reduced.&quot;<p>Austria is chip&amp;pin only (except for american cards which are allowed to do magstripe) and interchange fees are &lt; 1%.  Sure, part of that has been the EU forcing the networks down to that level, but this could not have been done if Chip&amp;PIN was not in place.