It’s been a big week for retailers following the debate over credit and debit card swipe fees – and with nearly $50 billion a year at stake, who isn’t following this?
As NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay explains in an open letter to the retail industry, the action began on Wednesday. That’s when The Hill newspaper cited NRF’s work at getting swipe fee reforms into this summer’s financial services reform bill as one of the “Top 10 Lobbying Victories of 2010.”
Then, on Thursday, the Federal Reserve unveiled proposed regulations to implement those swipe fee reforms. The Fed says swipe fees for debit cards should be capped at no more than 12 cents per transaction rather than the current structure of 1 or 2 percent of the purchase price. That means a retailer would pay his or her bank 12 cents to process a $100 transaction rather than about $1.50. That’s a significant step forward, but NRF is still pushing for no fee at all since debit cards are just plastic checks and paper checks drawn on the same bank accounts are cashed at face value.
USA Today says the Fed action, once made final, could cut debit swipe fees by 90 percent. The paper also quotes Dean Sheaffer of NRF member Boscov’s as saying the savings on fees could help retailers hire more employees or add stores. NRF General Counsel Mallory Duncan tells the Los Angeles Times that retailers will share the savings with customers, either as discounts or other benefits.
As Matt explains in his letter, these accomplishments on swipe fees are evidence of what retailers can do when they work together. NRF plans to devote more resources to advocacy going forward and hopes to see even more victories.
One Comment
I’m all for lowering fees but where is the fee actually
coming from? Is it the bank or is it the company we use to process
the card and transfer the money to our bank account. For some small
businesses we are using a separate, merchant services account
because our banks are too expensive. I think debit cards and credit
cards are still going through the same channels so really should
have the same fees.
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Aaron McPherson, Troy Flanagan, Warhead eCommerce, Patti Hewitt, Ramesh Sethuraman and others. Ramesh Sethuraman said: RT @NRFnews: Swipe fee victory a testament to strength of retail industry. http://bit.ly/gXgm1U #interchange #fed [...]
[...] satisfied with this proposal — the National
Retail Federation says it will continue to press for zero fees.
Their logic: Debit cards are essentially just plastic checks, and
paper checks aren’t [...]