Many small retailers were losing precious money on debit card point-of-sale transactions due to swipe fees mandated by financial institutions. The Dodd-Frank Act, which went into effect last year, changed all that by capping fees at a specific point.

However, the National Retail Federation has asserted that the nation's largest banks are still collecting way too much money on POS transactions. The organization also expressed its disappointment that fees were not further curtailed through the legislation.

"We believe the numbers for the big banks are too high and had the Fed followed the law there would be significantly greater savings for merchants and their customers," NRF senior vice president and general counsel Mallory Duncan said.

According to data from the Fed, the average swipe card fee charged is 24 cents, down by nearly half from the 43 cents charged in 2009.

Financial institutions throughout the country have struggled to implement new revenue generation strategies in response to the Dodd-Frank Act. Several banks tried to charge debit card fees to consumers to make up the lost revenue but later axed these programs in response to customer backlash.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012 at 10:45 am .