National Bankers Association (N.B.A.) Seeks Treasury Secretary's Help to Delete Durbin Amendment (S. 3217)

WASHINGTON, June 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Bankers Association (N.B.A.), a trade group comprised of minority and women-owned banks from across America, sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner requesting that the Administration oppose inclusion of interchange regulation as part of any final reform package.  

According to N.B.A. President Michael Grant: "Interchange revenue (from debit cards), in addition to providing no and low – cost banking products and services such as free checking and neighborhood development programs like financial literacy, also helps to offset higher than normal operational expenses that our member banks experience."

The letter quoted both Hispanic and African-American bankers suggesting that, if interchange regulation is adopted, these banks will lose a valuable source of revenue needed to continue providing goods and services to the economically distressed communities that they serve.

The letter concluded by reminding the Secretary that interchange was not part of the cause of the financial crisis, is not a consumer product or services issue, but instead a business to business issue.

SOURCE National Bankers Association