Political Quotes

“Thank you, Mr. President. Let me quote a few words from it. This is a letter to me, dated May 2: Dear Senator Durbin: We understand that some in the financial services industry are claiming that the Durbin Amendment exemption from interchange ``swipe fee'' regulation for financial institutions with assets under $10 billion will not be effective in practice because merchants will discriminate against debit cards with higher swipe fees. On behalf of the undersigned trade associations, and the tens of thousands of merchants and retail locations we represent, we are writing to make clear that we have no contractual or practical ability to treat debit cards issued by small financial institutions or credit unions differently than those issued by large institutions. Furthermore, our member companies are committed to customer service and it is not in their interest to discriminate against debit cards that so many customers carry. Currently, merchants are subject to Visa and MasterCard network rules that require us to accept all Visa and/or MasterCard debit, regardless of which bank or credit union issues the card. This is called the Honor All Cards rule and we risk the threat of $5,000 per day fines--or higher--if we break this rule, so we assure you that merchants have no intention of violating this term of brand acceptance. These rules also prevent merchants from pricing goods differently based on the financial institution that issued the card. The No.…”