Hearing on Credit Card Interchange Fees
The US House Judiciary Committee Antitrust Task Force is holding a hearing this Thursday, July 19, on the subject of credit card interchange fees. According to the Task Force's web site, testimony at the hearing will be provided by John Buhrmaster, President, First National Bank of Scotia, New York; Mallory Duncan, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, National Retail Federation; Edward Mierzwinski, Consumer Program Director, U.S. PIRG; Tim Muris, Of Counsel; O’Melveny & Meyers; and Steve Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer K-VA-T Food Stores, Inc.
Its important that the House is taking a hard look at this issue because the credit card industry has not been forced to have any transparency on this issue that is only getting more and more important. Small business owners have been getting hit hard by these interchange fees as well as consumers in the long run and the credit industry hasn't been held accountable. The credit card companies take in billions of dollars a year with these fees that are for the most part hidden from consumers who also end up paying on average $300 a year because of them. A group I do some work with www.unfaircreditcardfees.com has even more details on this issue, which I'm really glad Washington is taking some time to examine.
Posted by: Kevin | July 18, 2007 at 05:33 PM