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Although the House Financial Services Committee finally held its first discussion today on whether to restrict bank interchange rates, the hearing chiefly served to dispel beliefs that the panel was eager to legislate on the issue. Chairman Barney Frank said the issue deserved a spotlight but declined to say he intends to pursue legislation soon. "The interchange bill is a new one for us. … This is the beginning of a serious look at this issue," said the Massachusetts Democrat at the outset of the hearing, which also addressed a bill Frank and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) introduced to speed enactment of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act. Frank told reporters he could bring that bill up for a vote soon, but he said he had no plans beyond holding the hearing regarding interchange. "The credit card bill we could vote on next week; the interchange bill is less clear because there is much more consensus, as I said, on the credit card bill," he said. "The interchange bill–that's really still an open question." Asked if he believed interchange was an issue of importance more to merchants than to consumers, Frank suggested the question would be addressed. "The merchants say it adds to their costs," he said. "I hope the banks aren't going to say that's a cost on the merchants and not on the consumer because [merchants] say if there is a cost imposed upon them, it will be passed along. … In a free-market economy, costs imposed on the seller of the goods are passed along to some extent. Exactly to what extent is one of the things we're going to be talking about." Frank also said support for interchange legislation in the Senate has been stronger than in the House. "It is a very high priority to Sen. [Richard] Durbin," he said. "The Senate was prepared to put a version of the interchange bill into the credit card bill. We weren't ready to deal with it yet … ."
