The Durbin Amendment 10 Years Later: A Decade of Loss for Consumers and Small Businesses
October marked the 10th anniversary of the Durbin Amendment’s enactment — one of the most detrimental laws to come out of the response to the Great Recession.The Durbin Amendment, part of the Dodd-Frank Act, set federal price caps on debit interchange fees, or “swipe fees” and mandated routing requirements for payment networks. Big-box retailers and merchant groups touted the law as a win for consumers, stating that it would lower prices and provide more competition in the payments industry. In the decade since its enactment, it is abundantly clear that the Durbin Amendment has failed to accomplish its mission — instead gifting a massive windfall to mega-retailers like Walmart, Best Buy and Target, allowing them to line their pockets at the expense of American taxpayers.