In a disappointing turn of events, Congress has decided to strip out crucial language from the Financial CHOICE Act that would have righted a serious wrong done to consumers over the last seven years.
Last month, the House Financial Services Committee voted to include language in the bill to repeal the disastrous Durbin amendment, and do away with price controls on debit interchange fees that have provided retailers $42 billion in profit since 2011. These same retailers promised to lower prices for their customers with the additional revenue, but those savings never materialized and in many cases prices have been increased. Tacked on to the enormous Dodd-Frank bill in the 11th hour, the Durbin amendment was full of empty promises that were never fulfilled.