ICLE: Congress has an opportunity to repeal Durbin’s debit card price controls

In February, the White House issued a set of “Core Principles” for financial services reform that requires agencies to “empower Americans to make independent financial decisions and informed choices in the marketplace.” A good place to start would be for Congress to repeal the so-called Durbin Amendment of the Dodd-Frank Act.

Seven years ago, Democratic Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin rammed through an eleventh hour amendment to Dodd-Frank that imposed price controls on the permissible rate that large banks can charge for debit card interchange fees (the service fee paid by a merchant to the bank that issues the consumer’s card).

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