With $20 billion at stake, the credit/debit card and banking communities are going all out to keep the Federal Reserve’s proposed reductions in debit card swipe fees from taking effect, the National Retail Federation reports.
In an appeal to small and independent retailers nationwide, the NRF says: “As a result of your previous support, the card companies lost this battle when Congress included the Durbin Amendment’s requirement for ‘reasonable and proportional’ debit card fees in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act passed last summer. After weighing input from both merchants and the banking industry, the Federal Reserve staff in December strongly and conservatively recommended that debit card swipe fees be capped at a flat seven to twelve cents per transaction, rather than the current one to two percent of the transaction cost most of you are currently forced to pay. Nonetheless, the card issuers are attempting another major effort.”