NACS Speaks Out on Swipe Fee Ruling

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- NACS, the Association for Convenience & Fuel Retailing, issued a statement following the U.S. Court of Appeals' decision on Friday to uphold 2011 Federal Reserve rules governing how much banks can collect for debit card transactions. The swipe fee decision is considered a big defeat for convenience store retailers.

"It is unfortunate that the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals misread the law and the Federal Reserve's rule on debit swipe fees. Any rule that would allow profit margins of more than 1,000 percent and raise fees on many transactions clearly violates the letter and intent of the law Congress passed,” said NACS President and CEO Henry Armour. “Congress did the right thing by trying to make debit swipe fees more competitive and the law did that in spite of the Fed's mistakes. We intend to review all of our options for upholding what Congress did and ensuring that debit swipe fees become more reasonable for convenience retailers and their customers."

Friday's ruling reversed the ruling handed down last summer when U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon stated the Federal Reserve clearly disregarded Congress' intent by inappropriately inflating all debit card transaction fees by billions of dollars, stated NACS.

Alexandria, Va.-based NACS, founded in 1961, has 2,100 retail and 1,600 supplier member companies, which do business in nearly 50 countries.