NAFCU CEO Fred Becker has aggressively attacked the Federal Reserve's current rule implementing the Durbin debit cap amendment because of its lack of provisions to account for fraud damages.
"Fraud protection is a critical and costly aspect of debit card transaction," Becker wrote in an opinion piece that ran in today's The Hill newspaper. "In fact, a recent Javelin Strategy & Research study found that while identity theft fraud declined in the last year, debit card fraud grew significantly. Debit card fraud accounted for 36% of crimes committed with cards already in circulation in 2010, up from 26% in 2009. With increasing usage of debit cards, the instances of fraud are bound to continue rising exponentially."
Becker timed his piece to coincide with a hearing today before the House Financial Services Committee's Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit looking at the impact of the debit interchange cap.
