For Immediate Release Contact: Rachel Wolf
February 3, 2011 (202) 331-2120
AUSTIN, Texas – On a press call this afternoon, Texas business owners stressed the importance of swipe fee reforms and urged the Texas Congressional delegation to do its part in ensuring that reforms are implemented in a timely manner according to the law.
“I know that we have several friends on the Hill who have supported us in years past, and we expect to have their continued support to make sure that these reforms go through,” said Amar Ali, Vice President and General Counsel at A to Z Wholesalers, Inc. in Dallas. “But really, this message is for those who are supporting the big banks and have moved away from the small business owners and the consumers—because those are the ones being hurt by these fees.”
As the big banks and credit card giants wage an extremely well financed public relations campaign in DC, small retailers are doing everything they can to make sure people at home know how important swipe fee reforms are for merchants and consumers.
“It’s been a tough few years on Main Street, and it’s not easy for anyone to pay a 1 to 2 percent fee for consumers to access their own money from their checking accounts,” said Sam L. Susser, President and CEO of Susser Holdings Corporation in Corpus Christi. “Swipe fee reform is about bringing fairness and transparency to the broken payment market—and making sure that Visa, MasterCard and their big bank allies don’t have unlimited access to merchants and consumers pockets.”
“Merchants and consumers know that swipe fee reform is about putting money back in Main Street pockets,” said Susser. “We know that it’s about lower gas prices, new jobs, and better customer service. If these reforms stick, I know our retail chain would be incentivized to look at finding ways to pass along to consumers the savings that would occur from the reductions in these debit card fees.”
Swipe fee reform garnered broad bipartisan support when it was included in the financial reform package, but the big banks have engaged in a costly lobbying effort to overturn the reforms—at the expense of Texas business owners and their customers.
“Any action that Congress takes to roll back reforms and the associated discounting will take money directly from the pockets of merchants and consumers,” said Ali. “With the economy being the way it is right now, it’s safe to say that issues like this are a matter of survival for the small business owners and the retailers. How any true-blooded Texan could try to overturn these pro-consumer and pro-merchant reforms is beyond me.”
“We may not have the same clout as the banks, but I guarantee that the little guys aren’t going to let the big banks bully us around—and we aren’t going to stop fighting until new rules are in place to promote transparency and competition in the payments market,” said Ali.
Main Street businesses and their customers pay billions of dollars each year to the big banks and credit card companies in the form of swipe fees that are charged each time a customer pays with plastic. As the banks try and put an end to the new customer discounts that reform allows, merchants are launching their own grassroots efforts to tell the real story about the importance of swipe fee reform.
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The Merchants Payments Coalition is a group of convenience stores, retailers, and small business owners whose membership associations represent approximately 2.7 million stores and 50 million employees. For more information, go to www.unfaircreditcardfees.com or visit us on Twitter.