North Dakota Trade Groups File Debit Card Fee Suit Against Federal Reserve

Two retail trade groups at the state level have sued the Federal Reserve to seek a decrease in debit card swipe fees, Bloomberg reported Thursday (April 29).

The North Dakota Petroleum Marketers Association and the North Dakota Retail Association wrote in a complaint that the central bank should abandon its regulation that puts a 21-cent limit on those charges from the biggest banks in the country, according to Bloomberg.

Annual fees that retailers pay for the processing of debit cards and credit cards have increased to over $100 billion in recent years, Bloomberg reported.

“Especially during the pandemic, we’ve seen even more debit cards,” Mike Rud, president of both of the trade groups, told Bloomberg. “That all starts to add up.”

Limits were placed on debit card fees 10 years ago via the Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, according to Bloomberg. The central bank was told to implement regulations that limited charges to a price that was proportional to the expenses of lenders.

The Fed originally said that charges would be restricted to up to 12 cents for each transaction. However, the central bank ended up putting the limit at 21 cents, noting that it considered the fixed costs lenders bear to handle transactions. Moreover, banks have the ability to charge an additional penny for fraud prevention in addition to 0.05 percent for losses, Bloomberg reported.

The news comes as PYMNTS reported last year that U.S. shoppers conducted 72.7 billion non-prepaid debit card transactions in 2018, solidifying debit as a staple payment method.