ABA Lawyer Refutes Home Depot Claim of Reduced Prices Due to Durbin Posted by Association of Vermont Credit Unions on 2:15 PM

Kenneth Clayton, executive vice president of legislative affairs and chief counsel at the American Bankers Association, penned an American Banker editorial claiming that Home Depot's claim of reduced prices to consumers resulting from interchange caps isn't the truth. In fact, he cites, when Home Depot executives recently spoke to shareholders they attributed a reduction in expenses to "rapid-deployment centers," with no mention of gains from government price controls, which have clearly gone right to their bottom line.

Clayton claims that big-box retailers are raking in about $7 billion annually from the Durbin Amendment, while consumers don't see savings they've been promised at the register.  But, consumers do face higher costs for bank services, an entirely predictable result as institutions adjust to a 45% reduction in revenue they used to provide low cost accounts, fight fraud and maintain the payments system.

Read the editorial here.