Durbin Cedes Ground on Debit-Card Fee Limits as Support Erodes

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Looks like that "win" that retailers "thought" they had isn't as "in the bag" as previously thought...

June 17 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Senator Richard Durbin, faced with growing opposition and slipping support for his proposal to cap debit-card “swipe” fees, said he is working to exempt prepaid cards governments use to distribute benefits.

“It’s a special-case situation,” the Illinois Democrat and majority whip said yesterday at a hearing on fees federal agencies pay to accept debit and credit cards. “No decisions have been made as to how we’ll address those concerns, but we are working on way to carve out state-issued prepaid cards from the legislation,” Durbin spokesman Max Gleischman said today.

Durbin’s public concession, his first on the debit legislation since the Senate voted 64-33 to approve it last month, followed mounting opposition from card-industry lobbyists and lawmakers who have said that regulating swipe fees, or interchange, will enrich merchants at consumers’ expense.  <<read more>>