A bipartisan group of nine Senators, led by Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), today introduced a bill “to study the market and appropriate regulatory structure for electronic debit card transactions” and to postpone any regulation by the Federal Reserve Board for at least two years after the passage of the “Debit Interchange Fee Study Act of 2011.”
The legislation expresses concern about the impact of the Durbin Amendment on consumers, community banks and others. It requires several banking regulatory agencies to study the debit card business and the potential impact of regulations on consumers, small businesses, low- and moderate-income individuals, among other matters. The “study agencies” include the Federal Reserve Board, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the FDIC, and the National Credit Union Administration. These agencies are supposed to report back within 12 months to the Senate Committee on Banking and the House Financial Services Committee. The bill was put forward by Senators Jon Tester (D-MT), Bob Corker (R-TN), Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Tom Carper (D-DE), Pat Roberts (R-KS), Chris Coons (D-DE), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Pat Toomey (R-PA).
A copy of the bill can be found on Sen. Tester’s website.
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