The National Retail Federation (NRF) and the Montana Retail Association
today announced the launch of a radio advertising campaign urging
Senator Jon Tester to rethink his opposition to a new federal law that
would save retailers and consumers more than $1 billion a month by
lowering “swipe” fees banks charge to process debit card transactions.

“Americans pay the highest swipe fees in the world,” an announcer says
in the new radio ads. “Senator Tester knows this. But he’s helping the
big banks delay debit card swipe fee reform. Senator Tester says he’s
for the consumer, but Tester lets the big banks swipe our money.”

The one-minute ads are running on stations across Montana this week as
part of NRF’s nationwide 60-day lobbying, grassroots and media campaign
aimed at ensuring that swipe fee reform passed by Congress last year
goes into effect as scheduled on July 21. A provision in the 2010 Wall
Street reform bill will reduce the fees by an estimated 70 percent,
saving about $14 billion a year that retailers plan to pass along to
their customers through discounts or other benefits, but the banking
industry is spending millions of dollars to delay the reform.

“Congress concluded last year that swipe fees have been driving up
prices for consumers by far too much for far too long,” NRF President
and CEO Matthew Shay said. “Now that Congress has done something about
these fees, retailers are ready to pass the savings along to customers
through lower prices and higher value. We want to make sure swipe fee
reform takes effect as planned, and consumers get to enjoy those new
benefits as soon as possible.”

“Montana retailers don’t understand why Senator Tester has taken the
side of Wall Street banks over Main Street businesses and consumers here
at home,” Montana Retail Association President Bradley Griffin said.
“These fees are driving up prices for Montana citizens at a time when
the economy is still recovering. Montana doesn’t want swipe fee reform
delayed.”

Tester, a Montana Democrat, introduced legislation in March that would
delay implementation of swipe fee reform by two years and require a new
government study of the issue. Last week, he said he would modify the
bill to seek a 15-month delay, including a six-month study, six months
for the Federal Reserve to draft new regulations replacing those
proposed in December, and three months to prepare for implementation.

Tester’s call for further study comes despite the fact that Congress
held seven hearings and ordered two Government Accountability Office
studies before passing reform. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has
testified before Congress that he has all the information he needs to
prepare final regulations on schedule with no need for delay.

Swipe fees, officially known as interchange fees, are a charge averaging
1-2 percent for debit cards and 2-3 percent for credit cards taken by
banks each time a card is used to pay for a purchase. The fees have
tripled over the past decade to about $50 billion a year, and drive up
prices paid by consumers by an estimated $427 for the average household.
Debit cards account for about $20 billion of the total.

Congress has yet to deal with credit card swipe fees but included swipe
fee reform for debit cards in last year’s Wall Street bill. Regulations
proposed by the Federal Reserve to implement the provision would lower
debit card swipe fees from their current level of 1 to 2 percent of each
transaction to a flat fee of no more than 12 cents per transaction for
large banks that adhere to fee schedules set by the card companies.
Banks that set their own rates would be free to charge any fee they
believe the market would bear provide that they do so independently.
Financial institutions with less than $10 billion in assets are exempt.

As the world’s largest retail trade association and the voice of retail
worldwide, NRF’s global membership includes retailers of all sizes,
formats and channels of distribution as well as chain restaurants and
industry partners from the United States and more than 45 countries
abroad. In the United States, NRF represents the breadth and diversity
of an industry with more than 1.6 million American companies that employ
nearly 25 million workers and generated 2010 sales of $2.4 trillion. www.nrf.com

Listen to Radio Ad at http://swipefees.nrf.com/ads