Exclusive: Visa, Mastercard propose tourist card fee cut in EU antitrust probe - sources

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Visa Inc and Mastercard have proposed lowering the fees merchants face when they accept payments from non-EU credit cards in a bid to settle a long-running EU antitrust investigation, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

Even after the reduction, such fees which are paid by merchants when they accept card payments and are a lucrative source of revenue for banks, will still likely be higher than those for EU cards, they say.

Visa, the world's largest payments network operator found itself in the European Commission's crosshairs in August 2017, charged with subjecting the cards of foreign tourists to excessive fees when they used in the EU.

The Commission's charge againt Mastercard dated from July 2015.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Philip Blenkinsop)