Various retail trade associations are urging Congress not to repeal debit card swipe fee reforms.
More than 60 representatives from the Food Marketing Institute, Merchant Advisory Group, National Restaurant Association, National Retail Federation and Retail Industry Leaders Association gathered in Washington D.C. last week asking lawmakers to uphold the Durbin Amendment to Dodd-Frank — the repeal of which would wipe away swipe fee reforms and hurt main street businesses.
The associations told legislators that the reforms have introduced competition and transparency into a market and have positively impacted their businesses.
“By repealing debit swipe fee reform, Congress is standing with card companies and big banks on the backs of Main Street retailers,” Austen Jensen, vice president of Financial Services for the Retail Industry Leaders Association, said. “These reforms have saved retailers and our consumers billions. Repealing these reforms would harm merchants and our customers. The electorate has spoken and they do not want to bailout big banks for providing another bonus check for Wall Street.”
A repeal of the Durbin Amendment would mark a return to anti-competitive practices that cost retailers and their customers billions of dollars a year, Mallory Duncan, senior vice president of and general counsel for the National Retail Federation, said.
“If that happens, the fees will go nowhere but up and the opportunity for competition will be lost. Retailers are on Capitol Hill today to tell lawmakers that debit reform needs to be preserved for the sake of American consumers and our nation’s economy,” Duncan said.
If the debit swipe fee protections are removed, the result would be an $8 billion tax on small businesses that goes directly to the large banks, Leslie Shedd, vice president of the National Restaurant Association, said.
“Our restaurants are on Capitol Hill today to make it perfectly clear to Congress that we are strongly opposed to changes to these protections,” Shedd said.
The group says debit swipe fees are among the highest operational costs that merchants have – second only to labor.
“Rolling back debit reforms puts legacy players in the driver’s seat for digital commerce,” Liz Garner, senior vice president of Policy and Public Affairs for the Merchant Advisory Group, said. “We should be focused on opening up the market to players who provide faster, more secure, more reliable, and more cost-efficient solutions that help us better serve our customers.”