The Federal Reserve Board is scheduled to meet at 1 p.m. (Eastern time) today on proposed revisions to the agency’s debit interchange fee cap.
Joint Letter: ICBA and other groups last week urged the Fed to reject merchant requests for further changes to Regulation II. The groups called on the Fed to share more details on the potential revisions, to allow the groups to rebut merchants’ inaccurate and misleading assertions, and to recognize community banks’ rising costs and falling revenues due to Reg II rules.
Previous Update: The Fed last year issued updates to its rules specifying that issuers should enable—and allow merchants to choose from—at least two unaffiliated networks for card-not-present debit card transactions, such as online purchases. Those updates took effect July 1.
Previous ICBA Advocacy: ICBA called on the Fed to reconsider its proposal in a 2021 comment letter and 2022 joint letter with other groups, noting the Durbin Amendment has distorted the debit card and consumer checking markets. It urged the agency to delay the effective date in a separate letter earlier this year.