The National Retail Federation launched radio campaigns in several states Tuesday to urge senators to oppose the delay of debit card interchange caps.
The Washington trade group, which has squared off with the banking industry over the caps in recent months, said its one-minute ads are running in Montana, West Virginia and Maine.
The Durbin amendment to the Dodd-Frank Act requires the Federal Reserve Board to cap debit interchange rates at a figure it considers reasonable and proportional to the costs of issuing debit cards. The Fed has proposed to cap the interchange rate at 12 cents per transaction, down from today's average of 44 cents a transaction.
The federation aims to hold off last-minute efforts by Montana Sen. Jon Tester and supporters to garner enough votes to pass a bill he introduced that would push back the debit fee cap's implementation date of July 21.
The bill originally would have delayed the cap's implementation by two years, though Tester recently said he would shorten the timetable to 15 months to sway favor with other senators.
