Senate Votes To Let Fed Trim Debit Card Swipe Fees

[Purveyor]

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

(06-08) 11:59 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --

The Senate voted Wednesday to let the Federal Reserve slice the fees that stores must pay banks each time a customer swipes a debit card, handing merchants a victory over banks in a lobbying battle over billions in revenue.

Senators supporting the financial institutions' efforts to head off the Fed proposal fell six voters short of the 60 needed to prevail. The vote was 54-45.

The tally also was a triumph Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democratic leader who had muscled a provision into last year's financial overhaul law requiring the Fed to offer a plan for limiting the fees.

Those charges now average 44 cents per transaction and mean $16 billion annually for banks and credit card companies, according to Fed data.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/06/08/national/w000231D64.DTL

[Inuca]

1. I went to the Senate site

and this seems to be the vote for the Tester amendment (failed), not for the actual change.

[elleng]

3. Why did Tester want it?

[ieoeja]

2. And the Senate Republicans did not filibuster because ...

... they know the Republican controlled House will never bring it up to vote. So it can die quietly.

[George Wythe]

4. These guys an gals should learn how to handle their present responsibilities

before taking on any more. We don't need the fluff, just fix the economy and balance the goddamn budget!

Besides that, you can join a credit union tomorrow and reduce your debit card swipe fees to $0.00.

[No Elephants]

15. These are fees vendors pay credit card issuers when a customer (you or me) swipes a card.

The customer does not pay them. However, you can be sure vendors build the costs into the prices they charge us. So, it is a cost we pay, but have no control over.

I believe vendors also pay credit card issuers a percentage of each sale, another cost I'm sure is passed on to us via the cost of things we buy--whether we actually pay by credit card or not.

[George Wythe]

19. This is nothing more than calculated bunk intended to fool the public.

They said the banks were "to big to fail" so they let them have billions. Now, we are supposed to believe that they want to protect us from these same mean ol' banks...

I can hear them laughing now, for they know that this stuff works every time.

[kpete]

5. Banks Defeated in Senate Vote on Debit Card Fees

Source: New York Times

Banks Defeated in Senate Vote on Debit Card Fees
By EDWARD WYATT
Published: June 8, 2011


WASHINGTON — The Senate refused Wednesday to delay new rules that would sharply cut the fees that banks can charge retailers to process debit card transactions.

The debit card rules were a major part of the Dodd-Frank financial regulation law passed last year. The Senate vote was one of the strongest challenges so far to the new law.

Although 54 senators voted in favor of the delay, the measure failed to garner the 60 votes that were required for it to pass under Senate rules. Forty-five senators voted against the measure, which was sponsored by Senator Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat who is facing a tough re-election battle next year, and Senator Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican.

Even with the defeat, the vote showed the results of a remarkable come-from-behind lobbying campaign by banks to recover from the anti-Wall Street drubbing they took during last year’s debate over financial regulation. The debit card measure, sponsored by Senator Richard J. Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, passed last year by a two-to-one ratio after little debate and no hearings.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/09/business/09debit.html?_r=1&hp

[aquart]

6. "Banks defeated"????

Did I read that correctly? Is it a misprint? A misleading headline?

[Wilms]

7. From the OP:

The Sunlight Foundation said in an April report that 24 lobbying firms had been hired last year to influence action on the debit card rules. Eighteen of those firms were registered as representatives of the two major debit card networks, Visa and MasterCard. A large portion of those lobbyists have gone through the revolving door between government and industry: 68 of the 79 people who registered as lobbyists for Visa or MasterCard previously worked in government, according to the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington.

Among the most prominent who worked to influence votes on the debit card measure were Richard A. Gephardt, the former House majority leader and a Democrat, who represented Visa. The retailers had Don Nickles, the former Republican senator from Oklahoma, in their corner.

More here:

http://www.muckety.com/Query?SearchResult=8341&SearchResult=5010379&graph=MucketyMap?_r=2D

[truedelphi]

9. It used to be that if you were a pol and you helped someone in

Big Business, They met you inside a dark stanky alley and handed you your bribery money.

Now they just wait a month or two after you leave office and give you a sweet, highly paid position inside their company in return for the shenanigans you pulled back while a "public servant."

[defendandprotect]

10. What a sleaze Dick Gephardt was ... former Rep. Pat Schroder of Colorado

told an interesting story about Rep. Dick Gephardt and House Majority

leader Tip O'Neill ---

After New Gingrich's first term, they didn't contest him in his next race --

and the reason was because "Newt was in favor of a salary increase for USHR" -- !!!


We didn't need either -- the USHR with automatic pay increases -- or Newt Gingrich!!!


:puke:

[Lasher]

8. Senate Roll Call Vote Number 86

I see my new neoliberal Senator Manchin voted for the banks. No surprise there.

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=112&session=1&vote=00086

[madville]

11. So the banks are going to raise fees on the debit card users now

since they can't charge the merchants much now? Someone at work was saying there is talk of banks maybe charging the card holder $0.50 or $1.00 per transaction.

[Demeter]

12. I don't think they will get far with that idea

but it ought to be fun to see them try.

[cosmicone]

13. People will just write checks ...

which cost more to process.

The whole "Merchant Fee" scam is unholy -- whether it is on credit cards or debit cards. It especially stinks on debit cards because the banks have no risk involved -- people are using their own money already in the bank.

[sendero]

14. Exactly.

.... they are lucky to get the 12 cents, that's probably a lot more than it costs to process them and doesn't even factor in the cost avoidance of not using other payment methods.

[No Elephants]

17. At least the consumer will then have control over the fees. Please see Reply 15.

As a consumer, you can decide when using your credit card is worth the swipe fee to you.

When the deal is between the card issue and the vendors, you may not even know about it, let alone have a way of controlling it.


And the fee will drive up the cost to you of goods you are purchasing, even if you never use a credit card.

[No Elephants]

16. Why does this require 60 votes to pass? Or is the writer conflating filibusters and substantive

votes?


I think I'll get me a copy of Senate rules since they seem to fuck up my life again and again.

[No Elephants]

18. More Democrats than Republicans voted to delay the cut.

Thirty-five Democratsand 19 Republicans voted to delay the Fed's plan. Voting to let the rules take effect were 32 Democrats, a Democratic-leaning independent and 12 Republicans. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., did not vote."


So much for the poignant belief that only a few corporatist Blue Dogs mess up the otherwise populist, altruistic Democrats time after time.


Beyond that, how messed up is it that the Fed needs Congressional approval to LOWER fees charged by credit card issuers?

And why is the Fed even involved in what fees are and are not charged?