Nov
30
Editor’s Note: Retailers are moving from rent-seeking, i.e., gaming the regulatory system for personal gain, to Regulation by Litigation.
From: Supemarket News
WASHINGTON — Three industry associations, including Food Marketing Institute, filed a lawsuit in federal court here last week saying the Federal Reserve failed to follow the requirements of last year’s sweeping financial reforms when it set a cap on debit-card interchange fees this year.
Nov
23
Editor’s Note: Retailers may want to consider the implications of their demand for yet more stringent price controls on debit cards, federal action may not stop where they want.
Nov. 22 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve was sued by retailer groups over new regulations governing so-called swipe fees, claiming the Fed disregarded the law when deciding how much banks can charge merchants for debit-card transactions.
Nov
18
From: Charlotte Business Journal
Adam O’Daniel
At the Common Market deli and corner store, owner Chuck Barger admits debit-card interchange or “swipe” fees are difficult to understand, even after months of banks screaming about new rules governing the charges.
And he was left scratching his head this week when asked about how the controversial Durbin amendment would effect his South End store off South Tryon Street.
“I don’t really see any savings,” Barger says.
There may not be any savings to see. As the first debit-card processing-fee statements since new regulations took effect begin to arrive in retailers’ mailboxes, merchants might be disappointed, experts say.
Nov
09
Editor’s Note: The lessons from price controls on debit interchange — consumers lose — has apparently not been learned.
From: CSPnet.com
SIGMA, other groups set sights on further fee reductions
WASHINGTON — Even as efforts are made to repeal debit-card-fee reform, SIGMA and other retail groups hope to carry the momentum of that historic lobbying effort to make similar changes to credit-card and other interchange fees in the near future.
“The banks’ great hope is that this will be applied only to ‘cards’,” said Tim Columbus, legal counsel for SIGMA, during the SIGMA Annual Meeting in Washington this past weekend.
Nov
02
From: American Banker
Higher account maintenance fees are inevitable, because basic, relatively low-balance checking accounts are simply not profitable on their own. Despite the widely circulated allegation that banks are raking in money from regular consumer accounts, industry groups, analysts, and available data suggest that such accounts are money losers without overdraft fees or extremely high-margin interchange charges. This problem is worse for the major banks, which have higher overhead.