July 21st marks the tenth anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Act, which included the Durbin Amendment’s price controls on debit cards. EPC marks the day by promising to continue fighting back against the failed policy.
“Ten years after the signing of Dodd-Frank, the Durbin Amendment continues to be an abysmal failure that hurts consumers, small businesses, credit unions and community banks,” said Jeff Tassey, chairman of the board of the Electronic Payments Coalition (EPC). “Retailers promised to pass savings on to consumers, but big-box stores have instead pocketed billions of dollars and raised prices while consumers saw free checking accounts and popular debit card rewards programs vanish.”
Retailer special interest groups continue to defend the policy despite more than a dozen studies showing the price controls’ failures. Furthermore, since 2012, issuers have lost more than $90 billion in interchange revenue — including an estimated $14 billion in 2019 alone.
“A decade later, these same retailers are pushing to expand price controls even further. Any increase in price controls would devastate consumers and financial institutions by risking investment in innovation,” Tassey remarked. “These investments are responsible for state-of-the-art technology like contactless payments, which have become indispensable during the coronavirus pandemic.”
EPC urges Congress to see any call for price controls for what it is, another money grab by big-box retailers. Legislators should instead move to repeal the Durbin Amendment and end a decade of failed policy.