Merchant Community Urges Congress to Protect Debit Swipe Fee Reform

In a joint letter sent to Capitol Hill, more than 160 associations, including NACS, are asking members of Congress to protect meaningful debit reform provided by the Durbin Amendment.

July 07, 2016

WASHINGTON – This week more than 160 national and state merchant trade associations, including NACS, sent a letter to House leadership to express the merchant community’s strong opposition to H.R. 5465 and the “CHOICE Act” language that would repeal the debit swipe fee reforms included in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

U.S. Rep. Jeb Hensarling, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, is circulating draft legislation that allows price-fixing of debit card swipe fees and includes a full repeal of the Durbin Amendment and debit reform. Although he’s recently spoken about his commitment to helping Main Street and ending government bailouts, a repeal of debit swipe fee reform would do the exact opposite.

The debit reforms contained in Dodd-Frank, provided by the Durbin Amendment, brought the first piece of competition and transparency into a market that was historically void of it. “The reforms in the law have benefitted American consumers, merchants, small financial institutions and the economy as a whole. Repealing or weakening the law will only benefit fewer than two percent of the country’s largest banks and remove any and all competition from the debit routing market,” notes the letter.

NACS released a statement in June opposing the Hensarling proposal. To contact your member of Congress today to voice opposition to repealing debit swipe fee reform, please click here

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