For Immediate Release Contact: Rachel Wolf
December 16, 2010 (202) 331-2120
Small Businesses Applaud Federal Reserve for Pro-Consumer and Merchant Swipe Fee Proposal
WASHINGTON— The Merchants Payments Coalition, representing 2.7 million U.S. businesses with 50 million employees, released the statement below in response to the Federal Reserve’s proposed rule regulating debit card interchange fees .
The proposed rule was born from the bipartisan Durbin amendment that was included in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
According to Mallory Duncan, Chairman of the Merchants Payments Coalition:
“Today’s proposed rules are a step forward in bringing fairness and transparency to the debit fee system. The Merchants Payments Coalition welcomed the historic swipe fee reforms passed by Congress earlier this year, and is committed to fighting for rules that reflects the intent of Congress and protects merchants and consumers from hidden swipe fees.
“Today’s proposal will result in savings for small businesses and consumers. Allowing consumers to get discounts and fees to be transparent are good results for everyone. While no interchange fees should be allowed on debit transactions, the Fed’s proposal demonstrates real progress toward that reasonable goal—and parity between checks and debit cards.
“Small Businesses will continue to fight for consumer discounts and work to ensure the final rules bring fairness, transparency and competition to the payments market and will fight those who seek to pile ever-higher fees on merchants and their customers.”
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