The state bankers associations today wrote to Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) to express their support for a bill he introduced earlier this month that would repeal Dodd-Frank’s Durbin Amendment and eliminate the government-imposed price caps on debit card interchange. The groups pointed out that the amendment has reduced banks’ ability to offer affordable products and services to their customers, while failing to pass on any tangible savings to consumers, as originally intended.
“[T]he amendment has only rewarded big-box stores with higher profits, while resulting in higher costs to smaller merchants, fewer resources available for banks — including community banks — to serve their communities, and a reduction in low-cost banking services for those most in need,” the associations wrote. “[R]etailers cannot produce evidence that they have returned the proceeds of the Durbin Amendment to consumers in the form of lower prices. Fewer services and higher costs for consumers is not an acceptable policy outcome for a law that promised tangible benefits for American debit card customers.”
