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Legislation to reduce credit and debit card interchange rates stalled this year in Congress, but one legal expert says interchange regulation could get rolled into an omnibus banking bill next year. Speaking yesterday at SourceMedia's ATM, Debit & Prepaid Forum in Chandler, Ariz., Duncan B. Douglass, a partner with Atlanta-based Alston & Bird, said that when Congress convenes in January, we are likely to see broad new legislation aimed at helping to dig out the banking industry and the economy from its trough. "Because of this year's economic meltdown, we're likely to see mammoth legislation next year along the lines of the New Deal that would affect banks. Whether interchange regulation gets rolled into that remains to be seen ... but there is a possibility that it could be shoveled into a broad banking bill." Douglass said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., likely will prevail in his efforts to move the approval of interchange legislation to the House Financial Services Committee from the Judiciary Committee (CardLine, 9/17). Time ran out for the Credit Card Fair Fee Act, introduced last March by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., to reach the House floor for a vote during this session, but Douglass says he expects Conyers and other lawmakers to resume aggressive efforts to open interchange rates to negotiation between merchants and card issuers. "It is impossible to predict what direction things will go, but we will definitely see a lot of movement next year from lawmakers aimed at regulating interchange rates." SourceMedia publishes CardLine.
