WASHINGTON - The Federal Reserve Board released statistics this week that show small and medium-sized banks and credit unions are prospering thanks to the swipe fee that banks charge merchants to process debit-card transactions.

"Just as reform advocates argued and Congress intended, [this] data confirms that small institutions are unaffected by swipe fee reform," said Douglas Kantor, counsel to the Merchants Payments Coalition. "The gloom-and-doom predictions of reform opponents have proved false."

Americans continue to pay the highest swipe fees in the industrialized world.

When Congress passed the Durbin Amendment as part of the Dodd-Frank financial-reform law in 2010, small banks and credit unions argued they would be harmed even though the final ruling exempted financial institutions under $10 billion in assets. The new Fed report shows the average swipe fee on a purchase for these small institutions was 43 cents in the fourth quarter ?" the same as it was in 2009.

"While problems remains, swipe fee reform has significantly improved the debit market, resulting in countless benefits for small businesses and consumers," said Kantor. "The intense competition that exists among merchants means consumers are winning with swipe-fee savings."