WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Electronic Payments Coalition today launched a new national advocacy campaign on the 15th anniversary of the implementation of the Durbin Amendment, which placed harmful government mandates on Americans’ debit cards. The new campaign, “Fool Me Once,” highlights the consequences of government payment mandates for consumers and small businesses and warns Congress against repeating the same experiment with credit cards though the Durbin-Marshall Credit Card Mandates.
The Durbin Amendment’s price controls and routing mandates were pushed by corporate mega-stores and their lobbyists as a way to lower prices for consumers. Fifteen years later, those promised savings never materialized. Instead, retailers pocketed the windfall while consumers saw free checking decline, account fees increase and debit card fraud attempts rise.
Now, the same corporate mega-stores are pushing Congress to impose similar government mandates on credit cards through the Durbin-Marshall Credit Card Bill.
“Fool us once, shame on corporate mega-stores. Fool us twice, shame on Congress,” said Electronic Payments Coalition Executive Chairman Richard Hunt. “Fifteen years ago, the corporate mega-stores made empty promises about new mandates saving consumers money. Instead, those mega-store executives pocketed the windfall while families, small businesses, community banks and credit unions paid the price. Now the mega-store lobbyists are back in Washington selling Congress the same empty promise on credit cards.”
The “Fool Me Once” campaign puts the record of the original Durbin Amendment front and center as Congress considers whether to repeat the same approach with America’s credit card system. As part of the campaign, EPC also released a new one-pager, “15 Years Later, the Durbin Amendment Remains a Policy Disaster,” detailing the impact of the debit card mandates on consumers, small businesses, community banks and credit unions.
