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November 01, 2011 02:41 PM Eastern Daylight Time
WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The National Retail Federation today issued the following statement from Senior Vice President and General Counsel Mallory Duncan in response to Bank of America announcement that it has dropped plans to impose a $5 monthly fee on debit card users:
“Thanks to bipartisan efforts in Congress, we’ve begun to see transparency and competition for debit card fees. We need to achieve the same for credit card fees.”
“This decision proves that a free and open marketplace based on transparency and competition works. When merchants were saddled with sky-high credit and debit card swipe fees years ago, there was little they could do because the fees were hidden and there was no true competition. But when this fee was announced in the open by one bank and other banks offered the same service without a fee, consumers were able to do what retailers have always wanted – to vote with their feet. This is why card companies and banks have tried so hard to hide their fees – because when excessive fees are exposed to the light of day, they go away.”
“Thanks to bipartisan efforts in Congress, we’ve begun to see transparency and competition for debit card fees. We need to achieve the same for credit card fees.”
As the world’s largest retail trade association and the voice of retail worldwide, NRF’s global membership includes retailers of all sizes, formats and channels of distribution as well as chain restaurants and industry partners from the United States and more than 45 countries abroad. In the United States, NRF represents an industry that includes more than 3.6 million establishments and which directly and indirectly accounts for 42 million jobs – one in four U.S. jobs. The total U.S. GDP impact of retail is $2.5 trillion annually, and retail is a daily barometer of the health of the nation’s economy. www.nrf.com.
