There has been
a lot of discussion among the banking industry about the Durbin
Amendments, which take effect this week. Now the National Retail
Federation (NRF) has voiced its own concern over the effects the
reduction in debit card fees will have.
The NRF said that while the Durbin ACT will
save US merchants and their customers billions of dollars in debit
card fees, merchants are concerned that fees will increase on
small-ticket purchases such as a cup of coffee.
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The Durbin Act will cap debit card swipe fees
at 21 cents per transaction, down from 44 cents on the average
retail purchase.
Low cost purchases currently carry an average
fee of eight cents, but retailers worry this may increase as banks
and card networks try to make up for the reduction of profit they
make – or used to – from charging swipe fees.
Mallory Duncan, senior vice president of NRF
said:
“Even as these regulations are about to go
into effect, banks are trying to turn what is supposed to be a
ceiling on these fees into the floor for small transactions even
though those fees were already grossly out of proportion to the
amount of the purchase.”
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By GlobalDataDebit card fees currently costs merchants
$20bn annually, NRF said.
