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Congressional Democrats Seek Information on Student Debit Cards; CFPB Plans "Banking on Campus" Event
On September 26, several Democratic Members of Congress, including Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL), House Financial Services Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-CA), House Education Committee Ranking Member George Miller (D-CA), and Senate Banking Committee members Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), sent letters to the CEOs of numerous financial institutions asking that the institutions explain their student debit card deals with colleges and universities. The letters ask each financial institution for: (i) a list of colleges/universities where the institution has an agreement to enroll students in any deposit account or prepaid debit account and where the marketing, materials or financial instruments used to access such accounts are co-branded with a college or university logo, symbol, mascot or name; (ii) the number of accounts opened through agreements at each institution of higher education listed from the previous question, and the total fees collected from such accounts over the last three academic years; (iii) the total value of monetary and non-monetary remuneration provided to such institutions of higher education for the marketing of these products over each of the last three academic years; and (iv) whether any of the institution’s employees or agents have ever provided any monetary or non-monetary gift to an employee or agent of an institution of higher education, including meals, entertainment, gift cards, or compensation for an advisory committee above a $10 value as part of the institution’s marketing strategy over the past three academic years.
Earlier this year the CFPB initiated a review of campus affinity relationships, and on Monday, September 30, the CFPB is hosting an event regarding financial products offered at colleges.
D.C. Federal District Court Vacates Federal Reserve Board's Interchange Fee Rule
On July 31, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia held that the Federal Reserve Board’s 2011 final rule implementing the so-called Durbin Amendment is invalid under the Administrative Procedures Act (APA). NACS v. Bd. of Govs. Of the Fed. Res. Syst., No. 11-2075, slip op. (D.D.C. Jul. 31, 2013). Several retailers and their trade associations filed suit to challenge the Federal Reserve Board’s rule that set a 21-cent cap on interchange fees – the fees payment networks charge merchants on each debit card transaction to compensate the card issuer – and required that only two unaffiliated networks be available for each debit card. The court found that the Board exceeded its authority under the Durbin Amendment by adjusting the fee cap in the Final Rule to include costs (such as network processing fees and fraud losses) that were not permitted to be considered. The court also concluded that the Board violated the APA by not requiring that all debit transactions be able to run over at least two unaffiliated networks, regardless of authorization method (i.e., signature or PIN). The court further noted that the Board did not provide merchants the ability to choose the network on which they would process transactions. The court vacated the Board’s interchange transaction fee and network non-exclusivity regulations as arbitrary, capricious or otherwise not in accordance with law and remanded them to the Board for further action. However, in order to avoid disrupting commerce, the court allowed the current regulations to remain in place temporarily. The court invited further briefing on the appropriate length of the stay and whether the current standards should remain in place until they are replaced or the Board should develop interim standards sufficient to allow the court to lift the stay.
Federal Reserve Board Report Finds Interchange Fee Exemption Benefiting Small Issuers
On May 23, the Federal Reserve Board issued a report showing that the exemption designed to protect small debit card issuers from interchange fee standards applied to large issuers is working as intended. The report indicates that depository institutions with consolidated assets of less than $10 billion, which are exempt from the interchange fee standard in Regulation II, received fee revenue of 43 cents per transaction in 2012 – roughly the same as the average received before Regulation II took effect. While the Dodd-Frank Act exempted small issuers from the interchange fee standard set in the regulation, it did not provide an exemption from the statute’s prohibition on network exclusivity. As a result, Regulation II requires every debit card issuer, regardless of size, to have at least two unaffiliated networks on every debit card. According to the report, most small issuers that responded to a survey about the effect of the network exclusivity provisions of the rule indicated that significant compliance costs were not incurred.
Florida AG Announces Settlement with Prepaid Debit Card Companies
On January 16, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that she obtained “first of their kind” settlements from the state’s five largest prepaid debit card companies. The settlements resolve claims that the companies failed to properly disclose information about fees and misled consumers with claims that use of the cards would improve credit history. While the agreements are not identical, they each require enhanced compliance measures, which generally relate to fee disclosures, use of comparison charts, and use of claims about credit improvements. Each company also agreed to make a donation to the Central Florida Chapter of Junior Achievement and pay the cost and fees for the matters investigated to the Office of the Attorney General.
Canada Proposes Adding Mobile Payments to Card Industry Voluntary Code of Conduct
Recently, Canada’s Department of Finance published a consultation paper that proposes an addendum to the Code of Conduct for the Credit and Debit Card Industry in Canada to apply the Code to mobile payments. The Code, which took effect in August 2010, is a voluntary measure applicable to credit and debit card networks and covers point-of-sale, Internet, and phone payment methods. The addendum would extend the Code to apply explicitly to payments initiated by consumers that access a deposit or credit account through a payment network accessed by mobile device at the point-of-sale. The addendum also would clarify the way in which five of the ten elements of the code would apply to mobile payments. For example, the addendum would prohibit credit and debit card functions from co-residing in the same mobile payment application. Canada’s Department of Finance has invited stakeholder comments on all aspects of the proposal.
FDIC Settles Student Debit Card Fee Enforcement Action; CFPB Issues Related Consumer Advisory
On August 8, the FDIC announced consent orders with a debit card issuer and vendor to resolve allegations that the entities operated an allegedly unfair and deceptive student debit card account program that (i) charged student account holders multiple nonsufficient fund (NSF) fees from a single transaction, (ii) allowed accounts to remain in overdrawn status while NSF fees accrued, and (iii) collected fees from subsequent deposits to the accounts. Collectively the settling companies will provide $11 million in restitution and agreed to pay civil money penalties totaling $282,000. The orders also require that the companies enhance their compliance programs and take specific steps to alter their NSF practices. On August 9, the CFPB issued a consumer advisory in which it reminds students that they (i) cannot be required to use a specific bank or card, (ii) should select bank account before arriving at school, and (iii) should opt for direct deposit as soon as it is offered.
FTC Submits Staff Comments on CFPB's Proposed Prepaid Card Regulation
On July 30, the FTC released staff comments submitted in response to the CFPB’s Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding the regulation of prepaid cards. The CFPB issued the Notice in May, noting its intention to extend Regulation E to cover general purpose reloadable gift cards and seeking comment, data, and information about such cards. In response, the FTC staff comments review the current regulation of payment cards, and identify for the CFPB’s consideration several consumer protection issues that may arise with regard to prepaid cards, including (i) liability limits, (ii) disclosure and fees expiration dates, (iii) error resolution procedures, (iv) authorization standards for recurrent payments, and (v) consumer access to account information.
Federal Reserve Board Finalizes Rule Allowing Debit Fraud-Prevention Adjustments
On July 27, the Federal Reserve Board issued a final rule that amends Regulation II. The rule allows a debit issuer that is subject to the interchange fee standards to charge—in addition to interchange fees—a fraud-prevention fee to defray costs associated with implementing policies and procedures that reduce fraudulent electronic debit transactions. The fee cannot exceed one cent per transaction, unchanged from the Federal Reserve’s interim final rule on this issue. The final rule details fraud-prevention program requirements that an issuer must meet in order to charge the fee. An issuer charging such a fee must annually review and update its fraud-prevention program and notify its payment card networks that it complies with the rule’s fraud prevention standards. The rule takes effect October 1, 2012.
Major Settlement Reached in Consolidated Interchange Fee Litigation
On July 13, the parties to the long-running consolidated class action litigation against the two major payment network providers and 17 banks filed a proposed settlement to resolve allegations that the defendants unlawfully conspired to fix the fees that merchants are charged each time a customer uses a card for a purchase, so-called “swipe” or “interchange” fees. Class Settlement Agreement, In re Payment Card Interchange Fee & Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation, No. 05-MD-1720 (E.D.N.Y. Jul. 13, 2012). In total, the settlement is valued at $7.25 billion. Of that total amount, roughly $6 billion would be paid to a class of millions of merchants and certain individual merchants. Another $1.2 billion of the total amount would be used to provide merchants with a temporary reduction in interchange fees. Further, the agreement allows merchants, for the first time, to apply a surcharge to customer transactions processed over the payment networks.
Lawmakers Ask CFPB to Examine Student Debit Cards
On June 7, Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Representative George Miller (D-CA) sent letters to the CFPB and the Department of Education requesting that those agencies examine the practices associated with bank-affiliated student debit cards. The letters cite a recent U.S. PIRG report that identified troubling practices with these products, including alleged use of improper fees and misleading marketing. The lawmakers pose a series of questions to define the scope of the examination, including, for example (i) whether campus-based debit cards provide adequate consumer protections, (ii) whether the fees and penalties associated wit such cards violate federal law, and (iii) whether the contractual agreements between schools and financial institutions violate student privacy rights.