Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) is trying to weaken debit card interchange fee reform “the Durbin amendment”, which was included in the “Dodd-Frank Act.” Following passage of Dodd-Frank, the Fed ultimately provided some consumer relief by capping debit interchange fees at 21 cents per transaction and 0.05 percent of the transaction plus an extra penny for card issuers for fraud prevention. Banks and credit unions with $10 billion or less were exempted under the law.
Sen. Shelby’s language is included in the Senate Appropriations Committee FY 2016 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill which passed out of committee on July 23 by a 16 to 14 party line vote. The language would exempt more banks from the fee reform by indexing the $10 billion asset threshold to the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which will harm consumers and retailers by making fewer banks subject to the fee caps. PMAA, along with the Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC), is adamantly opposed to any weakening of the Durbin amendment.
Please contact your Senators and ask that they oppose the Shelby language change to debit card interchange fee reform that is in the appropriations bill. Click HERE to take action.
