Fees are a cost of business

Merchants pay financial institutions interchange income in order to accept the debit cards which my credit union pays for. I cannot possibly imagine why legislators such as Sen. Patty Murray would want to make a push to eliminate this income.

I would like to remind readers about the T.J. Maxx data compromise, because of which thousands of T.J. Maxx shoppers had to replace their debit cards and have their accounts reimbursed due to fraudulent charges which occurred with varying degrees of severity. But T.J. Maxx wasn’t the entity which provided the fraud reimbursement and replacement cards, it was the financial institutions which incurred these costs.

If these kinds of expenses are simply “the cost of doing business” for financial institutions, then interchange fees should be a cost of doing business as well, especially since credit unions and banks are the ones paying for the data breaches which occur due to retailer negligence. The interchange provision within the Financial Reform Bill is just another example of ignorant finger-pointing, and should be discarded completely.

Jeff Wirth

Spokane