So, it must be good for consumers. Nevertheless, there’s consensus between the banks, the bank lobbyists, bank industry trade organizations, bankster funded Senators & Representatives, banking regulatory heads that debit interchange restrictions are a bad deal. The elevator pitch is simple: don’t cut our golden goose or the consumer gets it!
1. The poor & teh blacks will get it if you f&*k with our revenues:
Because banks really care about the unbanked or the poor. After all, banksters let themselves be taken advantage of by the ravenous bunch (or as Peter Wallison & AEI claim, the poor and teh black tricked banks into giving them shitty loans).
2. The small banks exempted from current regulations will get it
The FDIC is concerned about the impact the Federal Reserve’s proposed debit-card interchange rule will have on community banks and their customers, FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said last week in a letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
There’s no impact on them whatsoever and are exempted from the proposed regulation, but, hey, you know, look, there’s a muslim over there. Funny how Sheila Bair is basically parroting the bank lobby head’s line:
Keating explained that the law’s exemption for institutions with less than $10 billion in assets cannot work because free-market economic forces naturally drive businesses to obtain the lowest possible price.
Funny, funny.
3. Nothing is more genuine than a very large bank being concerned about the impact of regulations on their smaller brethen
The consequences of this proposal will ultimately be borne by the consumers,” said Andy Navarrete, senior vice president and chief counsel of national lending for Capital One Financial Corp., at a meeting of the Fed’s Consumer Advisory Council. “I would urge the board to take the time necessary to study the impact of this proposal on consumers and payment systems as a whole, and smaller banks in particular. It’s critical that we have a complete picture here before any proposal is finalized
Awww.
4. The NAACP gets in on the action:
Congress should review proposed caps on debit-card transaction fees to ensure they don’t force low-income minorities out of the banking system, the NAACP said in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner
I’m sure when the regulations are revised, banks will overwhelmingly support the NAACP and the black community. Just like they did pre-crisis. 
5. Interchange regulation will thwart innovation.
Interchange fees help card-issuers cover the cost of providing the reliable, quick, secure 24/7 debt-card system, Nessa Feddis, ABA VP and senior counsel, explained Tuesday evening on the PBS’ “NewsHour With Jim Lehrer.”
“It not only helps maintain it, but it helps improve it. That means innovation. And one of the great concerns … is that, if they don’t have the money, you won’t see any more innovation,” Feddis told program host Judy Woodruff and Mallory Duncan, SVP and general counsel of the National Retail Federation.
Because, you know, the banking industry’s record of awesome innovation has a continued streak since the ATM in 1970s. Take, for example, the .. umm, err, mmm, look over there: a muslim taking a picture of an ATM. Someone tell Peter King.
6. Revise the regulation or small businesses will get it
Banking lobbyists eagerly point to a conference call in which a Home Depot executive told financial analysts the proposed rule would lower its debit fees by about $35 million a year.
Small-business owners, for their part, cite what they say is the devastating impact of rising debit card fees. Small banks and credit unions say they depend on debit fees to allow them to offer other services, like free checking. “Under the current proposal,” Frank Michael, president of Allied Credit Union of Stockton, Calif., told the subcommittee, “we are going to lose money on every transaction.”
Well, at least, Home Depot may hire an extra 500 minimum wage workers with that $35million in savings. What are banks going to do with that $35 million (other than give themselves awesome bonuses for thwarting regulation)?
7. Very serious regulatory heads concur with banks, their lobbyists:
The Federal Reserve’s interchange proposal takes an unnecessarily narrow approach to recovering costs that not only would be allowable under the Dodd-Frank Act, but also are a recognized and indisputable part of conducting a debit-card business, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said Friday in a comment letter.
Gee, a former bank lobbyist leading a bank regulatory body reiterates bank lobby message to re-deregulate bank industry! Will wonders never cease.
