Payments Dive: Merchants, banks spar over Fed’s debit card fee proposal
In a Dec. 23 rebuttal letter, the Merchants Payments Coalition, which includes restaurant, retail and gas station members, pushed the Fed to finalize the proposed rule changes, calling them “long-overdue.” It also argued that the ABA letter, which landed after the comment deadline, doesn’t raise any new issues. In its letter, the MPC said the ABA’s analysis ignores comments from consumer organizations that support the Fed’s proposal, and cast doubts on the threat of reduced affordable banking services. Instead, it suggests blocking the rule is a way to keep fees charged through the card networks high. “The banking industry wants to extend, for as long as possible, the status quo in which covered debit card issuers are able to have Visa and Mastercard fix interchange rates on their behalf at lucrative levels that exceed the reasonable and proportional standard Congress established,” the MPC’s letter said.
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Law360: What Banking Attorneys Are Watching In The Courts In 2025
"The card industry will still collect billions in swipe fees in Illinois alone under this law, but it is a key first step in bringing swipe fees under control," Doug Kantor, (MPC Executive Committee member and) general counsel of the National Association of Convenience Stores, said in a Dec. 20 statement. "We look forward to the law taking effect against Visa and Mastercard in July."
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PYMNTS: What to Watch as the Debit Interchange Fee Battle Heats Up in 2025
The jousting over the Fed’s proposal — as banking groups square off with merchant industry trade associations — has ramped up as recently as this week. In the latest development, the Merchants Payments Coalition pushed for the Fed to quickly finalize the current proposal. A letter sent this week to the Fed’s chairman, Jerome H. Powell, followed a December missive from the American Bankers Association that recommended the Fed withdraw the proposal. ... The MPC contended in its own letter: “Accepting deposits and maintaining accounts is a profit-making activity for banks, and they do not need interchange revenue for allowing consumers access to their deposits.”
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Bloomberg Government: DC Stadium Deal Tops 2024 Lobbying Wins as Others Suffer Losses
Lobbyists working on either side of the long-running, big-money fight over credit card interchange fees are likely to keep hauling in the cash into the new Congress. A measure backed by retailers did not come up for a vote this Congress, though the Merchants Payments Coalition’s Doug Kantor says his side has “more momentum” now than earlier this year.
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Digital Transactions: Merchants Hit Back at a Banking Group’s Request That the Fed Hold off on Reducing a Debit Interchange Cap
The Merchants Payments Coalition fired back late Monday at a request last week from the American Bankers Association that the Federal Reserve not act on a proposal to lower a longstanding limit on the interchange banks can earn on debit card transactions. In a letter to the Fed, the MPC argues the banking industry wants to extend the “status quo” on debit interchange, which it argues Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. set at “lucrative levels that exceed the reasonable and proportional standard Congress established.” “We urge the Board to reject the ABA’s request for further delay in the finalization of the Board’s necessary and long-overdue Reg. II updates,” the MPC says in its letter to Fed chairman Jerome Powell.
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PYMNTS: Merchants Payments Coalition Urges Fed to Finalize Interchange Fee Proposal
The Merchants Payments Coalition is urging the Federal Reserve to quickly finalize the Fed’s proposal to reduce the fees banks are allowed to charge merchants to process debit card transactions. The group said this in a letter to Federal Reserve Board of Governors Chairman Jerome H. Powell that it sent in response to a Dec. 12 letter from the American Bankers Association, which urged the Fed to withdraw the proposal, according to a Dec. 12 press release. “The banking industry wants to extend for as long as possible the status quo in which covered debit card issuers are able to have Visa and Mastercard fix interchange rates on their behalf at lucrative levels that exceed the reasonable and proportional standard Congress established,” the MPC said in its letter. “Each day of delay means another day of excessively high fees that accrue to the ABA’s larger members and that are borne by Main Street merchants and their customers.”
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USA Herald: Credit Card Fee Law Faces Legal Challenges in Illinois Federal Court
The Merchants Payments Coalition also issued a statement celebrating the ruling Friday and noting that three of its member associations have asked to join the suit. MPC Executive Committee member Doug Kantor said in the statement, “Illinois small businesses and their customers, along with workers who depend on tips, will benefit from protection against Visa and Mastercard’s abusive swipe fees under this law.” “The judge agreed that Visa and Mastercard cannot burden businesses and consumers with fees on taxes and tips,” said Kantor, who’s also the general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores. “The card industry will still collect billions in swipe fees in Illinois alone under this law, but it is a key first step in bringing swipe fees under control. We look forward to the law taking effect against Visa and Mastercard in July.”
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Digital Transactions: An Injunction Against Illinois’s Interchange Act Leaves Both Sides Claiming Victory
“The law will go forward with respect to Visa and Mastercard,” says Doug Kantor, (MPC Executive Committee member and) general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores, which earlier this year petitioned the court to join the IIFPA lawsuit as a defendant. “There will be another hearing and maybe some appeals, but for now it is clear Visa and Mastercard, which set interchange rates, will have to comply with the law,” when it goes into effect next July.
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Law360: Banks, Not Credit Cos., Can Duck New Ill. Fee Law For Now
The Merchants Payments Coalition also issued a statement celebrating the ruling Friday and noting that three of its member associations have asked to join the suit. MPC Executive Committee member Doug Kantor said in the statement, "Illinois small businesses and their customers, along with workers who depend on tips, will benefit from protection against Visa and Mastercard's abusive swipe fees under this law." "The judge agreed that Visa and Mastercard cannot burden businesses and consumers with fees on taxes and tips," said Kantor, who's also the general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores. "The card industry will still collect billions in swipe fees in Illinois alone under this law, but it is a key first step in bringing swipe fees under control. We look forward to the law taking effect against Visa and Mastercard in July."
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Digital Transactions: The ABA’s Letter to the Fed Is the Latest Salvo in the Battle Over Debit Card Interchange
But merchants have long argued the Durbin cap is too high, and would remain so even with the proposed reduction. In a comment letter it sent to the Fed in May, the Merchants Payments Coalition, which lobbies on behalf of retailers on payments policy, contended the proposal would cut banks’ allowable interchange by “less than a third even though banks’ average cost of processing a transaction has fallen by nearly 50%–from 7.7 cents just before the current rate was set to 3.9 cents as of 2021.”
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