1st Fed Debit Interchange Study Released Posted by AVCU on 1:35 PM

The Federal Reserve released its study of debit interchange today, as required by the Dodd-Frank Act. Among the findings:

• ave. interchange for credit unions and other issuers under $10 billion was 43 cents/trx in 2011;
• ave. interchange for issuers over $10 billion (capped by Dodd-Frank) was 24 cents/trx;
• ave. interchange fee in 2009 was 43 cents. across the board;

2009 Debit	2011 Debit	% Increase
37.6 billion trx	46.7 billion trx	24%
$1.4 trillion sales	$1.8 trillion sales	27%

The debit interchange fee cap regulations, which became effective last fall, limit debit interchange fees for issuers with assets of $10 billion or more to 21 cents, and allow an additional five basis points per transaction to be charged to cover fraud losses. An extra penny may be charged by financial institutions that are in compliance with established fraud prevention standards. Most credit unions are exempt from the fee cap. Read the Fed's press release.