North Dakota Truck Stop Argues in Federal Court for Lower Debit Card Fees

(Photo by Nicole Morton/For the North Dakota Monitor)

(North Dakota Monitor) –  A North Dakota truck stop wants a federal judge to find that the Federal Reserve Board violated the law by neglecting to crack down on mushrooming debit card transaction fees.

The fees which apply every time someone swipes their debit card — are meant to reimburse banks for the cost of processing transactions. But for years, banks increased these fees to an extent that far exceeded those costs.

Congress decided to pass a law reining in banks after it learned that they were making billions off of the fees annually. The law commonly referred to as the Durbin Amendment after U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-IL., was adopted in 2010 as part of a package of consumer protection reforms that followed the 2008 financial crisis.

The statute instructs the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to regulate the fees in a way that is “reasonable and proportional” to the cost of processing debit card purchases.