Lyle Beckwith

Companies like Visa and Mastercard make decisions about security in secrecy, without enough input from banks and merchants.

Companies like Visa and Mastercard make decisions about security in secrecy, without enough input from banks and merchants.

The Federal Reserve and Federal Trade Commission investigated Visa for debit practices, a move that enhances competition in the marketplace for merchants.

In opposing restrictions on interchange fees, the financial services industry often claims that 2011 debit swipe-fee reforms are such a huge threat to revenue that even small banks and credit unions below $10 billion in assets, which are exempt from the Dodd-Frank Act rules, feel the pinch.

Not only does evidence point to small banks escaping interchange restrictions — as Congress intended — but there are also signs smaller institutions are gaining retail market share because of the exemption.

Five years ago, Congress decided to take action on the bloated, price-fixed fees that banks charge merchants every time a customer makes a purchase with a debit card. It ordered the Federal Reserve to bring competition to the market by lowering fees to a reasonable sum.

The era of antitrust violations by the big card companies isn’t over yet; but at least it is starting to crumble.