Mastercard and Visa have threatened to stop providing refunds to defrauded customers in a pre-emptive attack on the Reserve Bank of Australia as it considers restricting the fees the credit card giants can charge.

Labor has put the issue of payment fees on the agenda after pledging to ban retailers charging their customers for using their debit cards from the end of next year. At the same time, the RBA said it was considering restricting how much companies like Mastercard and Visa could charge retailers.