Merchant Payments Coalition

The Merchant Payments Coalition (MPC) was formed by a group of retailers, supermarkets, drug stores, convenience stores, gas stations, and other businesses fighting against what they see as unfair fees for the privilege of accepting payment cards. The MPC says that it is fighting for more competition and transparency in the payment card market.
Durbin Amendement
The Durbin Amendment, passed as part of the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation in 2010, required the Federal Reserve to limit fees charged to retailers for debit card processing. The rule that the Federal Reserve issued went into effect on 1 October 2012 and allowed non-exempt card issuers to charge a one-cent fraud prevention fee to merchants in addition to another 0.7 percent for fraud prevention already included in the interchange fee. MPC argued that this rule was unfair as the Durbin Amendment required the Federal Reserve to ensure that banks take effective steps against fraud and determine how much of the cost banks should bear themselves. The MPC said that banks should actually have to reduce fraud before receiving more funds. The MPC pointed out that the common practice of having customers merely signing for debit card purchases processed through the Visa and MasterCard payment networks instead of requiring a PIN greatly increases fraud.

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