WASHINGTON – The National Restaurant Association is asking Congress to mandate reduced credit card interchange fees, “expanding upon the Durbin Amendment under the Dodd-Frank legislation.”
The request is being made as restaurants seek assistance from Washington as the coronavirus shuts down businesses across the nation, with restaurants particularly hard hit.
NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger challenged the move, saying Durbin Amendment proponents “are once again looking to pull the wool over consumers eyes while our nation is fighting a national pandemic by advocating to expand this failed policy.”
Berger noted in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, the Durbin Amendment passed Congress with “almost no debate or study” while its proponents promised consumers billions of dollars in savings via lower prices through a government-sponsored price control on interchange fees.
“However, these savings never found their way into consumers’ wallets. Instead, the savings ended up in retailers' and merchants’ coffers while consumers also saw a fewer free checking options and the elimination of debit reward programs,” Berger said. “If history is any lesson, the COVID-19 pandemic is no time to be expanding the failed policies of the past, and it is imperative Congress reject expanding this anti-consumer policy."