Senator Dick Durbin has defended his proposals
for capping debit card swipe fees once more and said he will not be
held responsible for banks’ decisions to impose debit card
fees.
Bank of America (BofA) was the latest bank to
announce debit card fees just before the Durbin Amendments took
effect.
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BofA will commence charging a monthly $5 fee
for debit card use to make up for the money that it said will be
lost due to the Durbin Amendment.
However, Senator Dick Durbin disagreed with
this claim during an interview with
NPR.
He said: “There are two reasons why we don’t
believe that Bank of America has been losing money since they made
some terrible mortgage decisions a few years ago. So it is a
financial company that has not done well. Now they want to blame me
for their misfortune,”
“Retailers across America are finally going to
get a break. They’ve been pushed by Bank of America and the biggest
banks to pay swipe fees that are imposed on them, with no power of
the retailer to even bargain. That has to come to an end.”
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By GlobalDataDurbin added that banks had to do adjust to
the new environment.
“The bottom line is, they should not be able
to price fix with Visa and MasterCard and charge retailers across
America an average of 44 cents for service which the Federal
Reserve says cost them seven to 12 cents. They’re dramatically
overcharging American consumers and retailers.”
The Durbin amendment has taken effect from 1
October, leading banks including Wells Fargo, Bank of America and
SunTrust bank to introduce a card usage fees.
