First Data's initial statement on the Federal Reserve's proposed debit interchange rule did not mention establishing a debit interchange schedule for small debit card issuers.
The law underlying the proposed amendment made it possible for payment networks to establish debit interchange schedules for credit unions and other card issuers that would not be covered by the debit interchange cap, but neither the law nor the proposed rule require them to do so.
"A dedicated team of more than 100 payments professionals from across First Data has been focused on Durbin and has considered and prepared for a wide range of alternatives regarding the proposed regulations so that we are prepared to serve the needs of our merchant and financial institution customers," the processor said.
"First Data is prepared to help our merchant and financial institution customers successfully navigate through a dramatically changing payments landscape because we have a unique set of assets-from the nationwide STAR debit network to card issuing and debit processing to prepaid solutions to merchant acquiring/processing. No one else in the payments industry has the same scale and breadth of solutions that we offer."
