WASHINGTON — More than 50 state bankers associations have rallied behind legislation from Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas, to repeal caps on debit interchange fees.
The groups argue in a letter in a letter Friday to Neugebauer and other members of the House Financial Services Committee that an amendment added to the Dodd-Frank Act by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., failed to help consumers and instead benefited only retailers.
"The amendment capped debit card rates under the false promises that it would somehow benefit consumers through lower prices at the cash register and that community banks and their customers would not be harmed," the letter said. "Congress deserves to know that an industry will keep the promises they make during the lawmaking process, but retailers cannot produce evidence that they have returned the proceeds of the Durbin Amendment to consumers in the form of lower prices."
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WASHINGTON Congress may end up revisiting a long-fought battle over debit interchange fees after Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas, introduced legislation Tuesday that would eliminate current caps that were part of a contentious addition to the Dodd-Frank Act.
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Rep. Randy Neugebauer introduced a bill Thursday that is designed to reverse some of the negative effects of legislation enacted last year that cut the dividend the Fed pays larger banks. His bill would allow banks to redeploy capital held at the Fed.
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Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., wrote to Visa on Tuesday to denounce an alleged new fee assessed by the company on credit and debit card issuers that see their business shift to a competing card network.
June 7
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, has also proposed legislation that would roll back the Durbin amendment.
Molly Wilkinson, executive director of the Electronic Payments Coalition, released a statement Friday endorsing Hensarling’s bill. The coalition's members include the American Bankers Association, the Consumer Bankers Association, the Credit Union National Association, the Financial Services Roundtable, the Independent Community Bankers of America and the National Association of Federal Credit Unions.
"The Electronic Payments Coalition supports the hard work of Chairman Hensarling and his push to repeal the Durbin Amendment as part of the Financial CHOICE Act … we thank Chairman Hensarling for his leadership and commitment to end this failed policy," Wilkinson said.
