Merchant Alert: Debit Interchange Regulation continues move forward
Interchange regulation makes the cut as the House and Senate reconciled their differences on Senator Durbin’s amendment to the proposed Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010. The proposed Interchange amendment compromise must still survive a bipartisan conference committee.
If the bill is passed, the Federal Reserve Board would gain the authority to establish rules and regulations related to the Interchange fees that issuers could earn with respect to debit card transactions. The Federal Reserve would have nine months to set Interchange fees and one would expect that they would provide several months after this decision for the payment industry to implement these changes.
With the prospect of debit Interchange falling, merchants should start now to position themselves to take advantage of these developments. The first and most important step merchants should take is to look at their merchant account pricing plan. Merchants may not benefit from lower debit Interchange if their merchant rates are billed on a bundled, blended, tiered, or non-qualified surcharge basis. If you are not on a direct Interchange pass through pricing plan already then you should take action now. Open your browser and keyword search "merchant Interchange rate quote" or simply visit http://merchantrates.com for an instant quote.