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Advanced Search About the Fed News & Events Monetary Policy Supervision & Regulation Payment Systems Economic Research Data Consumers & Communities Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System The Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States, provides the nation with a safe, flexible, and stable monetary and financial system. Home > News & Events > Press Releases Press Release June 29, 2011 Federal Reserve issues a final rule establishing standards for debit card interchange fees and prohibiting network exclusivity arrangements and routing restrictions For immediate release Share The Federal Reserve Board on Wednesday issued a final rule establishing standards for debit card interchange fees and prohibiting network exclusivity arrangements and routing restrictions. This rule, Regulation II (Debit Card Interchange Fees and Routing), is required by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Debit card interchange fees are established by payment card networks and ultimately paid by merchants to debit card issuers for each electronic debit transaction. As required by the statute, the final rule establishes standards for assessing whether debit card interchange fees received by debit card issuers are reasonable and proportional to the costs incurred by issuers for electronic debit transactions. Under the final rule, the maximum permissible interchange fee that an issuer may receive for an electronic debit transaction will be the sum of 21 cents per transaction and 5 basis points multiplied by the value of the transaction. This provision regarding debit card interchange fees is effective on October 1, 2011. The Board also approved on Wednesday an interim final rule that allows for an upward adjustment of no more than 1 cent to an issuer's debit card interchange fee if the issuer develops and implements policies and procedures reasonably designed to achieve the fraud-prevention standards set out in the interim final rule. If an issuer meets these standards and wishes to receive the adjustment, it must certify its eligibility to receive the adjustment to the payment card networks in which it participates. Comments on the interim final rule are due by September 30, 2011. The fraud-prevention adjustment is effective on October 1, 2011, concurrent with the debit card interchange fee limits. The Board will re-evaluate this adjustment in light of feedback received during this comment period. When combined with the maximum permissible interchange fee under the interchange fee standards, a covered issuer eligible for the fraudprevention adjustment could receive an interchange fee of up to approximately 24 cents for the average debit card transaction, which is valued at $38. In accordance with the statute, issuers that, together with their affiliates, have assets of less than $10 billion are exempt from the debit card interchange fee standards. To assist payment card networks in determining which of the issuers are subject to the debit card interchange fee standards, the Board plans to publish by mid-July and annually thereafter lists of institutions that are above and below the small issuer exemption asset threshold. Also, the Board plans to annually survey the networks and publish a list of the average interchange transaction fees each network provides to its covered and exempt issuers. This information should enable issuers, including small issuers, to more readily compare the interchange revenue they would receive from each network. The final rule prohibits all issuers and networks from restricting the number of networks over which electronic debit transactions may be processed to less than two unaffiliated networks. The effective date for the network exclusivity prohibition is April 1, 2012, with respect to issuers, and October 1, 2011, with respect to payment card networks. Issuers of certain health-related and other benefit cards and general-use prepaid cards have a delayed effective date of April 1, 2013, or later in certain circumstances. Issuers and networks are also prohibited from inhibiting a merchant's ability to direct the routing of the electronic debit transaction over any network that the issuer has enabled to process them. The merchant routing provisions are effective on October 1, 2011. The Board's notices for the final rule and the interim final rule that will be published in the Federal Register are attached. For media inquiries, call 202-452-2955. Statement by Chairman Ben S. Bernanke Statement by Vice Chair Janet L. Yellen Federal Register notice, Interim final rule, Regulation II: HTML | 114 KB PDF Federal Register notice, Final rule, Regulation II: HTML | 523 KB PDF 2009 Interchange Revenue, Covered Issuer Cost, and Covered Issuer and Merchant Fraud Loss Related to Debit Card Transactions (PDF) Frequently Asked Questions about General-Use Prepaid Cards and Circumvention and Evasion Last Update: June 29, 2011 BOARD OF GOVERNORS of the FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM About the Fed News & Events Monetary Policy Supervision & Regulation Payment Systems Economic Research Data Consumers & Communities Financial Stability TOOLS AND INFORMATION STAY CONNECTED Contact Publications Freedom of Information (FOIA) Office of Inspector General Budget & Performance | Audit No FEAR Act Español Website Policies | Privacy Program Accessibility BOARD OF GOVERNORS of the FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM 20th Street and Constitution Avenue N.W., Washington, DC 20551
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