At least one business organization is concerned about a new bill regarding credit card use.
During the Great Recession, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 mandated that debit card swipe fees be limited to a flat fee of about 21 cents per transaction. Before the act, banks were charging about 45 cents per debit transaction.
But a new bill may undo that. The Financial Choice Act, which recently passed its first committee, would repeal debit swipe fee reform as part of a broader rewrite of Dodd-Frank. If the law is passed by the House and Senate, and signed into law by the President, debit card swipe fees would no longer be capped.
The National Retail Federation recently asked Congress to reject the legislation. The organization fears that retailer swipe fees from banks could more than double, forcing retailers to pass the fees on to consumers, said Mallory Duncan, NRF senior vice president and general counsel.
“Big banks can’t be allowed to take yet another bite out of the consumer spending that drives the economy,” she said.
