Congress calls hearings as interchange debate heats up

Some members of the U.S. Congress are angling for a better perspective on the public debate over credit card interchange. A hearing on interchange and related issues is scheduled to take place before the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services Oct. 8, 2009, beginning at 10:00 am.

The hearing was called to accept testimony on H.R. 2382, the Credit Card Interchange Act of 2009, and H.R. 3639, the Expedited CARD Reform for Consumers Act of 2009. But as of last evening no list of invited witnesses was available yet.

H.R. 2382, introduced by Rep. Peter Welch and co-sponsored by 13 other members of the House, amends the Truth-in-Lending Act to prohibit specific interchange-related practices including: additional merchant fees for payments using premium cards, network routing restrictions and minimum transaction requirements. The bill would put the Federal Trade Commission in charge of writing and enforcing rules governing merchant contract requirements. The Federal Reserve Board would be placed in charge of collecting and making public details regarding card network rules and prices.

H.R. 3639 was introduced by Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and counts 10 co-sponsors including Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass. It would amend the Credit CARD Act of 2009 to provide for earlier implementation of various consumer protection clauses in that bill, which was signed into law earlier this year.

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