NRF Says Bill to Repeal Swipe Fee Reform Would Cost Consumers Billions in Savings

October 12, 2011 05:34 PM Eastern Daylight Time 

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Legislation introduced today in the House to repeal debit card swipe fee reform would cost consumers more than $6 billion a year in savings that merchants plan to pass along to their customers, the National Retail Federation said.

Representatives Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and Bill Owens, D-N.Y., today announced plans to introduce legislation that would repeal debit card swipe fee reform regulations that took effect on October 1. The regulations, set by the Federal Reserve under last year’s Wall Street reform law, capped debit card swipe fees charged by the nation’s largest banks at about 21 cents, down from an average 44 cents. Analysts have estimated that the cap will save merchants and their customers more than $6 billion a year.

“This misguided legislation would take billions of dollars in savings away from American consumers,” NRF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Mallory Duncan said. “The banks tried to stop this law from being passed, they tried to delay it once it was passed, and they managed to water down the amount merchants and consumers will save. Now that it’s just barely taken effect, they are trying to repeal it before anyone can benefit. Congress needs to stop doing the bidding of the banks and think about the people who paid for the bank bailout not so long ago – consumers and Main Street merchants.”

Retailers will not know the precise savings until statements from their banks arrive over the next several weeks. But merchants are planning a wide range of ways to use the savings to increase value for their customers, such as overall lower prices, specific discounts for using debit cards, free or lower-cost delivery on appliances, free alterations on clothing, or hiring additional staff to improve customer service, to name just a few examples.

As the world’s largest retail trade association and the voice of retail worldwide, NRF’s global membership includes retailers of all sizes, formats and channels of distribution as well as chain restaurants and industry partners from the United States and more than 45 countries abroad. In the United States, NRF represents an industry that includes more than 3.6 million establishments and which directly and indirectly accounts for 42 million jobs – one in four U.S. jobs. The total U.S. GDP impact of retail is $2.5 trillion annually, and retail is a daily barometer of the health of the nation’s economy. www.nrf.com.

Contacts

National Retail Federation (NRF)
J. Craig Shearman, 202-626-8134
shearmanc@nrf.com
www.nrf.com/swipefees