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Financial Services Law Insights and Observations

Fed proposes changes to its PSR Policy governing intraday credit

Agency Rule-Making & Guidance Federal Reserve Debit Cards Fintech Bank Regulatory

Agency Rule-Making & Guidance

On May 7, the Federal Reserve Board issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) seeking comments regarding proposed amendments to Regulation II, which implements Section 920 of the EFTA, that would require banks to ensure that two unaffiliated payment networks are available on their debit cards for online purchases. In a memo to the Board, Fed staff noted that due to the growth in online commerce, “card-not-present transactions have become an increasingly significant portion of all debit card transactions, and technology has evolved to enable multiple networks for these transactions.” However, “[d]espite this, two unaffiliated payment card networks are often not available to process card-not-present transactions, such as online purchases, because some issuers do not enable multiple networks for such transactions.” This outcome, Fed staff stated, is “inconsistent with Regulation II’s requirement that at least two unaffiliated networks be available to process each debit card transaction.”

The NPRM addresses this issue by amending Regulation II and its official commentary to (i) “clarify that the requirement that each debit card transaction must be able to be processed on at least two unaffiliated payment card networks applies to card-not-present transactions”; (ii) clarify requirements imposed “on debit card issuers to ensure that at least two unaffiliated payment card networks have been enabled for debit card transactions”; and (iii) “standardize and clarify the use of certain terminology.” Notably, Fed staff emphasized in their memo that the NPRM would not impact Regulation II’s provisions governing interchange fees for certain debit card transactions. As previously covered by InfoBytes, last month, two North Dakota trade associations filed a complaint against the Fed claiming that the agency has “failed to properly follow Congress’s instructions to ensure that debit-card processing fees are reasonable and proportional to the costs of debit-card transactions.”

The Fed published its report on debit card transactions in 2019, and noted it “will continue to review the parts of Regulation II that directly address interchange fees for certain electronic debit transactions in light of the most recent data collected by the Board pursuant to section 920 of the EFTA and may propose revisions in the future.”