Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast Episode: Understanding the Federal Reserve Board Proposal to Lower Interchange Fee Cap for Debit Card Transactions
Illinois has become the first state to enact restrictions on credit and debit card interchange fees – commonly known as swipe fees – linked to taxes and gratuities. The Interchange Fee Prohibition Act (the “Act”), embedded as...more
A proposed rule would lower the maximum amount that large debit card issuers can charge merchants for each transaction. On October 25, 2023, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FRB) published a proposal...more
The Federal Reserve Board (“FRB”) proposes to lower fees for debit card purchases. The FRB announced proposed rulemaking to reset its Durbin Amendment cap on interchange fees to 17.7 cents on an average transaction from 24.5...more
On December 23, the FTC ordered a payment card company to stop blocking merchants from using competing debit payment networks. According to an agency investigation, the company allegedly violated provisions of the Durbin...more
Colorado recently became the latest state to eliminate a statutory ban prohibiting merchants from imposing a surcharge on customers who elect to pay for a transaction via credit or charge card. The Credit Transaction Charge...more
Lightning never strikes twice, as the saying goes. But as many merchants are finding out these days, misfortune, in fact, strikes in threes. Not only has COVID-19 caused a substantial slowdown in the U.S. economy and...more
In recent years, federal antitrust enforcers and businesses that accept payment cards have been waging a slow war against payment card fees and the card network rules that protect them. The payment card industry’s antitrust...more
Issues surrounding network rules made headlines recently, with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals rejecting a $7.25 billion deal between Visa and MasterCard and approximately 12 million merchants claiming the networks worked...more
Most credit and debit cards in the U.S., and the point of sale terminals and ATMs that read them, still use “magnetic stripe” technology. Magnetic stripes are obsolete and relatively insecure, allowing fraudulent practices...more
On August 14, 2015, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the Board) published a clarification (the Clarification) of the Board’s decision to include transactions-monitoring costs in establishing the 21-cent...more