WASHINGTON — Swipe your debit card at the supermarket, and you’ve placed yourself at the heart of a contentious congressional debate.
On one side are banks such as JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America and credit-card networks such as Visa and MasterCard. On the other are retailers, including such giants as Wal-Mart and Target.
At issue: The “swipe” fees banks charge merchants for one of today’s most commonplace conveniences. At stake: up to $20 billion in potential bank losses and merchant gains.
For consumers, it could mean lower prices at the local store or restaurant, or it could result in higher bank charges, fewer “rewards” for credit-card users or even the imposition of an annual debit-card fee.
The fight over plastic has been raging for years — a federal appeals court once called it “a clash of commercial titans.” Now it has landed in the middle of a massive financial regulatory bill primarily aimed at restraining Wall Street.
House and Senate lawmakers are working to blend two financial-overhaul bills into one.
The Senate bill contains a measure that would require the Federal Reserve to set limits on what fees banks and credit-card networks can charge merchants for a debit- card payment. The House bill has no such provision.
Merchants maintain that the fee charged for debit cards is too high.
