ARLINGTON, Va. - Today, FMI - The Food Industry Association President and CEO Leslie G. Sarasin issued the following statement in response to a federal judge's ruling in Corner Post, Inc. v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System regarding Regulation II, the federal law that governs debit card swipe fees.
“Grocery customers and food retailers across the country won a critical victory in our fight against unreasonably high debit card swipe fees. FMI applauds the federal court ruling Wednesday that confirmed merchants’ longstanding arguments that the debit card swipe fee cap that the Federal Reserve established was too high. The debit regulated rate was initially set by the Federal Reserve in 2011. Since then, the Fed’s own data has shown that banks’ costs to process debit card transactions have gone down dramatically but the rate charged to food retailers and all other merchants has not been adjusted.”
“FMI remains hopeful that this ruling will spur the Fed to finalize its debit regulated rate rulemaking that lowers the rate and establishes a process for regular updates. Ensuring a ‘reasonable and proportional debit regulated rate, as required by law, is critically important to keeping prices low for customers in the slim-margined grocery industry.”
U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor of the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota on Wednesday granted summary judgment in a federal lawsuit filed by Corner Post in 2021. FMI has been advocating for decades that debit card swipe fees charged to merchants were too high. FMI filed a formal petition for rulemaking with the Federal Reserve in December 2022. The Federal Reserve voted to issue a proposed rulee to adjust the debit regulated rate in October 2023, and public comments were filed in May 2024. The final debit regulated rate rule has been pending with the Fed since then. FMI's comments to the proposed rule are available here.
