WASHINGTON—A federal district court today is examining debit interchange fees.
The court will address the calculation of permissible debit interchange fees under the Federal Reserve’s debit interchange fee cap rule. NAFCU said it will be monitoring the hearing.
Scheduled for 2:30 p.m. ET, the hearing was set by Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Leon in 2013 overturned the Fed’s rules implementing the Durbin Amendment in a lawsuit brought by the National Association of Convenience Stores. However, Judge Leon’s ruling was overturned in 2014 after an appeal by the Federal Reserve.
The suit ended this January when the Supreme Court rejected the retail group’s request for review of that decision. NAFCU noted that the only issue still pending is further determination of the board’s treatment of transactions-monitoring costs and whether those costs should be covered as part of the base interchange fee or as part of the fraud-prevention adjustment.
NAFCU said that while it welcomed the high court’s decision not to review the appeals court decision on the Fed’s rule, the trade association remains concerned that the current rule imposes below-cost caps on interchange fees and fails to provide for a reasonable return for credit unions.