Washington, DC – Main Street merchants are shocked and disappointed to see Senator Tester’s latest swipe fee proposal that prioritizes big bank profits over the health of the economy and the U.S. payments system.
“What the Senator wants to do is take the big banks’ talking points and codify them into law,” said Lyle Beckwith, Senior Vice President of Government Relations at the National Association of Convenience Stores. “This isn’t a compromise. This is an abdication of good policy, a handout to the big banks and a betrayal of small businesses and their customers.”
The new proposal, which Senator Tester tries to sell as a “compromise”, is in fact a giveaway to the country’s biggest banks that views small business owners as collateral damage.
The adapted bill would reduce the swipe fee delay period from 24 to 15 months and would require the Federal Reserve to automatically re-write its rules based upon a skewed study that is straight out of the talking points of the banking industry.
In a letter to the Hill following Senator Tester’s floor speech, the Merchants Payments Coalition said:
No one should be fooled by a bill that makes the profits of the 100 largest banks in America – the only ones subject to the Federal Reserve’s swipe fee rules – the top policy priority of the United States. If the big bank talking points are exalted into law, small businesses and consumers are guaranteed to suffer.
Any delay will cost Main Street merchants and consumers more than $1 billion per month in excessive swipe fees.