A Haunted History: Durbin Debit Mandates Offer Cautionary Tale for Durbin-Marshall Credit Card Mandates

WASHINGTON, DC— The Electronic Payments Coalition (EPC) this month marked the 14th anniversary of the implementation of the Durbin Amendment with a new Halloween-themed national campaign to show the harm the mandates caused consumers and small businesses. The campaign uses the debit mandates, which set price controls and routing mandates on Americans’ debit cards, as a cautionary tale for what would happen should Congress pass the Durbin-Marshall Credit Card Mandates. The campaign, titled “The Ghostly Impact of Durbin’s Debit Mandates on Your Wallet,” highlights the haunted history of the Durbin Amendment. The amendment was slipped into legislation at the last minute and led to higher costs for families and small businesses, decreased access to free checking, increased data security risks, and the loss of debit card rewards.  

“Washington and mega-store lobbyists promised the Durbin Amendment would help Americans. Instead, it drove prices higher, stripped away free checking, and weakened debit card security,” said EPC Executive Chairman Richard Hunt. “Now those same mega-stores are peddling the same stale talking points in an attempt to pass a political takeover of your credit card. The Durbin Amendment serves as a cautionary tale about the Durbin-Marshall Credit Card Mandates.”  

Durbin’s Debit Card Mandates still haunt Americans’ wallets: 

• The Durbin Amendment contributed to a 60% increase in debit card fraud. (Forbes) 
• The Durbin Amendment was supposed to lower prices for consumers, but the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond reported that 98% of retailers actually raised or kept prices the same. (Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond) 
• A Harvard study found a 42% drop in the share of banks offering free checking after the amendment was passed. (Harvard Kennedy School) 
• Consumers lost access to debit card rewards programs, with one study showing a 30% drop in the percentage of cardholders who received rewards. (NBC News) 
• Post-amendment, the average interchange fee for a $5 purchase doubled from $0.11 to $0.23 for small-ticket transactions. (JUSTT) 

Should Congress impose similar mandates on credit cards, through legislation previously introduced by Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and backed by the nation’s largest corporate mega-stores and restaurant chains, the Durbin-Marshall Credit Card Mandates would bring equally disastrous results for American cardholders and small businesses. 

The Durbin-Marshall credit card mandates would: 

• Result in an estimated $227 billion loss in GDP and 156,000 fewer jobs over four years, according to Oxford Economics (Oxford Economics) 
• Put small businesses at a greater competitive disadvantage against corporate mega-stores, reduce credit access and eliminate $12 bill in credit card rewards, according to the University of Miami (University of Miami) 
• Double fraud rates compared with 2021 levels, according to Texas A&M University (Texas A&M University) 

See below for an example of one of the display ads EPC is running nationwide.