The National Restaurant Association on Friday urged President Trump to keep in place debit card swipe fee protections that it believes has saved consumers billions of dollars.
The association made the statement after news on Friday that Trump signed an executive order to review financial regulations put in place after the 2008 financial markets crash — known as the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
The association said that it favors any regulatory relief that could increase access to capital for small businesses. “The National Restaurant Association welcomes President Trump’s comments and actions today to better ensure that small businesses can secure the money they need to grow,” Leslie Shedd, vice president of communications for the NRA, said in the statement.
Yet part of the law, known as the Durbin Amendment, regulates the fees large banks charge for debit cards, and is aimed at lowering retailers’ costs for accepting those cards. Retail and merchant groups backed the amendment, and the NRA said Friday it doesn’t want the amendment thrown out with the Dodd-Frank law.
“As discussions on Dodd-Frank continue, we also strongly urge the Trump Administration and Congress to keep the current debit swipe-fee protections in place. Repealing these protections, as some members of Congress are discussing, would impose a significant tax on small businesses,” Shedd said.
She said repeal “would take $8 billion a year from American consumers and give it to the biggest Wall Street banks. President Trump has made it clear crony capitalism like this will no longer be tolerated in Washington, and we urge others in Washington to follow his lead.”
The association says the swipe fee rate protections impact only large banks with $10 billion or more in assets. The association also argues that profits increased at small banks, while more Americans now have free checking accounts than they did before the amendment passes.
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