A recent op-ed by Lyle Beckwith of the National Association of Convenience Stores argued that debit card interchange is unfairly high. But this argument ignores several key points.
First, it’s important to remember that debit card interchange is regulated by the Durbin amendment, a law for which NACS and its allies lobbied heavily. The law charges the Federal Reserve with capping the debit card interchange rate at a level that is “reasonable and proportional” with the costs of processing these transactions.