WASHINGTON, DC (November 16, 2016) — The Honorable Paul Ryan
Speaker
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Minority Leader
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
Re: It’s Time to Repeal Debit Interchange Price Controls
Dear Speaker Ryan and Leader Pelosi:
On behalf of the National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU), the only trade association exclusively representing the federal interests of our nation’s federally-insured credit unions, I write today to set the record straight on the devastating impact that the Durbin Amendment of debit interchange price controls has had on our nation’s credit unions and their 105 million members.
Merchants are continuing to misrepresent the effects of the Durbin Amendment, hoping to increase their windfall from price controls even more. Retailers had promised to pass benefits and savings on to consumers if Congress enacted debit interchange price controls. Instead, the Federal Reserve has found that this amendment has been a $36 billion windfall for merchants. Consumers are seeing little benefit, and many have seen programs such as free checking disappear, while retail prices keep rising. Furthermore, despite the amendment’s attempt to exempt smaller institutions, the trickle-down impact of this price cap has dropped the average interchange fee for credit unions under $10 billion as well. Quite simply, the Durbin Amendment is not doing what proponents said it would. It is time for its repeal.
A proposal to repeal the Durbin amendment is before the House in Section 335 of H.R. 5983, the Financial CHOICE Act and in the form of H.R. 5465. We urge you to support these efforts to repeal the Durbin Amendment. On behalf of our nation’s credit unions and their more than 105 million members, we thank you for your attention to this important matter. We stand ready to work with you in this regard. Should you have any questions or require any additional information please contact me or Chad Adams, NAFCU’s Senior Associate Director of Legislative Affairs, at 703-842-2265 or cadams@nafcu.org.
Sincerely,
Brad Thaler
Vice President of Legislative Affairs
cc: Members of the United States House of Representatives
The National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions is the only national trade association focusing exclusively on federal issues affecting the nation’s federally-insured credit unions. NAFCU membership is direct and provides credit unions with the best in federal advocacy, education and compliance assistance. For more information on NAFCU, go to www.nafcu.org or @NAFCU on Twitter.
