No Market for Interchange Fees

In an article titled Rising Credit Card Interchange Fees Equal Double Punch at Pumps, Convenience Store News reports on yesterday's testimony at the House Judiciary Committee hearing on interchange fees. "Last year, convenience stores paid $7.6 billion in credit card fees, a figure more than double industry profits of $3.4 billion."

Tom Robinson, president of the San Jose, Calif.-based Robinson Oil Corp. who testified at the hearing (his full testimony is here) went on: "Right now there is no market for interchange fees. The fees are fixed by the banks, hidden from the public and forced on merchants in a take-it-or-leave-it offer. The Credit Card Fair Fee Act will create a market for interchange fees for the first time by allowing merchants and the card associations to negotiate on equal footing."