Sen. Richard Durbin added one more reason to quickly implement a statute that will limit interchange fees on debit cards: what's good for Canada and the European Union is good enough for the United Sates.
In a conference call with reporters Thursday, the author of the Dodd-Frank Act interchange provision said interchange fees being imposed for the same major U.S. credit cards, like those of Visa Inc. and MasterCard, are nonexistent in Canada.
Interchange fees on debit cards are "zero, and yet they continue to issue the cards and they continue to use them and use of debit cards continues to grow," Durbin said.
Major card companies took steps to "reduce the interchange fees dramatically" as soon as the European Union began discussing regulating those fees, the Illinois Democrat said.
"To argue that any change in interchange fees in the U.S. is somehow going to hurt consumers, disadvantage banks and credit unions is to ignore the obvious," Durbin said.
The senior senator urged lawmakers to see the rulemaking process through and end efforts to delay a proposal that has yet to be completed by the Federal Reserve Board. The final rule is to be published by April 21.
"At that time we will know the provisions of this rule and how it will affect all financial institutions," Durbin said.
