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| Sen. Jon Tester: No retreat, no surrender. Montana Democrat plows ahead with plan to delay implementation of Durbin interchange rules. |
The week began slowly for "Delay Durbin" proponents in the U.S. Senate where Majority Leader Harry Reid decided to debate oil company tax breaks, offshore drilling and judicial nominations. The small business innovation bill (S. 493), where the Tester Amendment to study and delay the rules on debit card interchange is pending, appears to be in legislative limbo (or purgatory if you wish). Two months remain before the Durbin Amendment is to take effect and the Federal Reserve Board has yet to publish a final rule.
Mid-week saw a significant momentum shift. The highlights are as follows:
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| Senate Majority Leader Reid. If Tester can show support, he'll give him a vote on delaying Durbin. |
- Sen. Durbin spent the last moments of the Senate session on Tuesday giving his interchange "stump" speech. He lashed out again at familiar opponents such as the Wall Street Journal and the American Bankers Association. Durbin revealed one news nugget by suggesting the Fed's final rule will be out the first week of June (Blogger's Note: Ben Bernanke is probably the only person who knows the exact date).
Majority Leader Harry Reid on Wednesday publicly backed Durbin against delaying the final rule, but he will give Tester a vote on his amendment provided Tester can demonstrate 60 votes in support.
Sen. Tester announced late Wednesday that he will revise his amendment to lower the study period from 24 months to 15 months. News reports speculated Tester's move was to garner a handful of remaining votes pushing him over 60 votes.
Tester is likely to file a revised amendment to another bill to accommodate the study period change and possibly other modifications. Many believe Tester will file the new amendment to the Patriot Act renewal bill which the Senate is likely to debate the week of May 23 (certain parts of the Patriot Act are set to expire May 28).
Please visit next week as this tug-of-war grows ever more intense.
A new report by The Financial Services Roundtable goes over the results of several studies of the Durbin Amendment and, unsurprisingly, concludes that its impact on consumers will be neutral at best and most likely negative.
ReplyDeleteThe debit card fees tested by most big banks may have been getting the most attention, however they are just one aspect of the banks' strategies for coping with the Durbin Amendment's revenue-slashing effects. The end result is that banking is still becoming more expensive, debit card fees or not.
Yet, there is a positive side effect for consumers with high credit scores who are actually benefiting from the Durbin Amendment, because they now get bombarded with credit card offers featuring incredible rewards programs from issuers eager to drive customers away from debit and into the more profitable credit. http://blog.unibulmerchantservices.com/impact-of-durbin-amendment-on-consumers-will-be-neutral-at-best