Swipe fee reform regulations to finalize in summer

WASHINGTON, March 29, 2011-- The National Retail Federation said that they welcomed a commitment by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke to finalize swipe fee reform regulations this summer. The deadline will allow retailers to begin offering customers discounts and other benefits.
“Retailers want to begin passing on swipe fee savings to their customers as soon as possible, and today’s announcement means those plans will be able to move forward as planned despite the anti-consumer efforts of some in Congress,” NRF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Mallory Duncan said.
Bernanke said the high volume of comments received by the Fed and the issues they have raised mean the agency will miss an April 21 deadline to complete final regulations. But he acknowledged that swipe fee reform legislation enacted last year will take effect on July 21 even without regulations.
Regulations proposed by the Fed in December would lower debit card swipe fees from 1 to 2 percent of each transaction to a flat fee of no more than 12 cents per transaction for large banks that adhere to fees set by the card companies. Banks that set their own rates would be free to charge any fee they believe the market would bear provided that they do so independently. The move would reduce the current $20 billion a year in debit swipe fees by about 70 percent, or $1.2 billion a month.