I didn't; guess that just means he's wrong. I fail to see how opposing this is progressive at all.
Joel Send a noteboard - 18/12/2010 12:49:36 PM
Barney Frank is against this, now the Democrat Senators such as Durbin are for it, but the main D man in the house is not 
UPDATE 1-Rep. Frank critical of Fed debit card fee rule
Fri Dec 17, 2010 5:41pm EST
* Frank says fee limit too low
* Says it is unlikely to help consumers (Adds additional quote, background, byline)
By Dave Clarke
WASHINGTON, Dec 17 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve's proposal to limit debit card fees would not allow card companies to cover the full cost of transactions, U.S. House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank said in an interview on CNBC.
The proposal released on Thursday would generally limit debit "interchange" fees at 12 cents per transaction. The average interchange fee for all debit transactions was 44 cents in 2009, the Fed said.
"I think the way it was written, the amount the credit card companies are allowed to charge is too low," said Frank. "It does not reflect the full cost of all that you have to do if you are running a credit card operation."
Banks charge retailers the fees and merchants have long tried have a limit put in place.
The fee limit was included in the financial regulatory overhaul law enacted in July. Frank is one of the law's main authors and it is often referred to as Dodd-Frank, with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd being the other lead author.
CardHub.com said on Friday it estimates the Fed proposal would cost banks $13 billion in revenue annually.
Frank expressed concern that whatever savings are achieved will not be passed on to the consumer.
"Unfortunately the evidence we've seen elsewhere is that consumers don't get any benefit," he said.
Analysts expect banks to make up for lost fees by curtailing rewards programs and increasing other fees.
Frank said the fee limit was added to the bill at the insistence of the Senate and that he would have preferred it had been left out.
Frank has also expressed concerns the limit will hurt small banks even though they are technically exempt from that provision of the law.
The rule, as required by the law, also seeks to introduce more competition into the card network market by requiring that transactions be able to be processed over more than one network, which analysts view as a blow to Visa (V.N) and MasterCard (MA.N). (Reporting by Dave Clarke; Editing by Robert MacMillan and Richard Chang)
UPDATE 1-Rep. Frank critical of Fed debit card fee rule
Fri Dec 17, 2010 5:41pm EST
* Frank says fee limit too low
* Says it is unlikely to help consumers (Adds additional quote, background, byline)
By Dave Clarke
WASHINGTON, Dec 17 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve's proposal to limit debit card fees would not allow card companies to cover the full cost of transactions, U.S. House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank said in an interview on CNBC.
The proposal released on Thursday would generally limit debit "interchange" fees at 12 cents per transaction. The average interchange fee for all debit transactions was 44 cents in 2009, the Fed said.
"I think the way it was written, the amount the credit card companies are allowed to charge is too low," said Frank. "It does not reflect the full cost of all that you have to do if you are running a credit card operation."
Banks charge retailers the fees and merchants have long tried have a limit put in place.
The fee limit was included in the financial regulatory overhaul law enacted in July. Frank is one of the law's main authors and it is often referred to as Dodd-Frank, with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd being the other lead author.
CardHub.com said on Friday it estimates the Fed proposal would cost banks $13 billion in revenue annually.
Frank expressed concern that whatever savings are achieved will not be passed on to the consumer.
"Unfortunately the evidence we've seen elsewhere is that consumers don't get any benefit," he said.
Analysts expect banks to make up for lost fees by curtailing rewards programs and increasing other fees.
Frank said the fee limit was added to the bill at the insistence of the Senate and that he would have preferred it had been left out.
Frank has also expressed concerns the limit will hurt small banks even though they are technically exempt from that provision of the law.
The rule, as required by the law, also seeks to introduce more competition into the card network market by requiring that transactions be able to be processed over more than one network, which analysts view as a blow to Visa (V.N) and MasterCard (MA.N). (Reporting by Dave Clarke; Editing by Robert MacMillan and Richard Chang)
I agree that the consumer benefit is likely to be negligible; if retailers reduced prices in proportion to the fee reduction it would defeat the point of the amendment. I'm a lot more sympathetic to small banks than to big credit card companies, but I tend to be more symapathetic to small merchants than to either of the other two. If this spikes small retailer business I think any losses by small banks will be more than offset by the overall increase in sales (and, after all, the amendment doesn't remove the transaction fee entirely, just cap it). Frankly (if you'll pardon the pun) I'm wondering what his angle is, because I think there has to be more to it than that. Regardless, I think he's on the wrong side of this bill, whatever the rest of his record reflects.
Honorbound and honored to be Bonded to Mahtaliel Sedai
Last First in wotmania Chat
Slightly better than chocolate.
Love still can't be coerced.
Please Don't Eat the Newbies!
LoL. Be well, RAFOlk.
Last First in wotmania Chat
Slightly better than chocolate.
Love still can't be coerced.
Please Don't Eat the Newbies!
LoL. Be well, RAFOlk.
Fed Proposes 12-Cent Max Fee On Merchant Debit Fees
- 17/12/2010 06:00:35 PM
766 Views
I'm a little iffy on this
- 17/12/2010 09:08:56 PM
458 Views
It may hurt consumers, it will hurt the banks
- 18/12/2010 06:03:40 AM
516 Views
I'd like to use credit cards more without feeling guilty that it's costing the business money. *NM*
- 20/12/2010 03:26:04 PM
217 Views
I'm so glad Visa and Mastercard are so worried about consumers, especially given THEIR tight budgets
- 17/12/2010 09:14:53 PM
621 Views
You do know Barney Frank (Democrat and major liberal and progressive) is against the change
- 18/12/2010 06:18:37 AM
594 Views
- 18/12/2010 06:18:37 AM
594 Views
I didn't; guess that just means he's wrong. I fail to see how opposing this is progressive at all.
- 18/12/2010 12:49:36 PM
492 Views
It has nothing to do with being progressive, it has everything to do with his banker constituents. *NM*
- 20/12/2010 01:30:04 PM
204 Views
I figured, but, as you say, nothing progressive in that.
- 20/12/2010 02:44:47 PM
474 Views
I am just pointing out that Evil is not unique to a single political party
- 20/12/2010 06:56:29 PM
517 Views
It wouldn't be nearly as effective it it were; it's quite systemic, for a reason.
- 20/12/2010 07:46:29 PM
517 Views
Sounds good to me, but it does seem like a natural monopoly, so that competition idea... eh.
- 17/12/2010 09:37:20 PM
520 Views
Curious.
- 20/12/2010 07:02:05 PM
492 Views
True, that does amount to largely the same thing.
- 20/12/2010 07:12:27 PM
617 Views
I am not sure what the proper amount should be but there does need to be limits
- 20/12/2010 11:10:18 PM
624 Views