WASHINGTON–The Federal Reserve Board is scheduled to issue its final rule on a controversial swipe fee provision next week, according to a public notice released June 21.
The central bank announced it will hold a public meeting June 29 to discuss the plan for capping the interchange fee on debit card transactions. It intends to release the final rule less than a month before it is supposed to take effect July 21.
Several industry groups are hoping the Fed will push back the effective date to give banks more time to make the transition to the cap.
Banks, credit unions and others are also pushing the central bank, following 11,000 comments it has received on its initial December proposal, to lift the planned 12-cent swipe fee cap. Analysts have been widely anticipating the Fed will raise the limit to as high as 20 cents.
Such a move would be a significant improvement for the financial-services industry but would still fall short of the industry’s average of 44 cents per transaction.
Other issues remain unclear. Will the Fed include issuer network fees used to pay for the cost of each transaction when it calculates the cap? Will the Fed make any changes to ensure that banks with assets of less than $50 billion are exempt?
