House to Senate: You Go First

Rep. Spencer Bachus, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, made the most significant news this week on the "Delay Durbin" front. He told a group of international bankers that the House would wait for the Senate to act on legislation delaying the Federal Reserve's interchange proposed rule on debit cards. Chairman Bachus took this position despite his Committee having two hearings in the last month on this issue and hearing broad, bipartisan support for a delay and study approach.

So, what is happening on the Senate side? News reports this week suggest a bill introduction to delay Durbin is eminent. These reports also identified Sens. Jon Tester (D-MT), Tom Carper (D-DE) and Bob Corker (R-TN) as the lead sponsors. The good news here is all three Senators are members of the Banking Committee which would first consider any legislation affecting the Durbin Amendment from Dodd-Frank. Expect a bill to be dropped the week of March 14.

Two interesting organizations jumped into the Durbin discussion this week as well. The Officer of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) wrote the Federal Reserve to voice strong concerns with the proposed rule's inflexibility for companies to recover identifiable costs associated with running a debit card program. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) wrote House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) this week urging the House to move swiftly on legislation to delay the implementation of the Durbin Amendment because study has not taken place on the potential impact to the unbanked and "risker" consumers.

Please visit my blog next week as I hope to finally report on actual legislation and its contents.

House to Senate: You Go First