Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) has taken the side of retailers intheir attempt to force the Federal Reserve to re-consider theregulations it implemented to enforce the Durbin interchangeamendment.

The amendment which bears his name capped debit card interchangefor debit card issuers of more than $10 billion in assets and itsregulations forced all debit card issuers to include at least twounrelated processing networks on their cards.

Retail trade associations have sued the Federal Reserve to tryto force the regulator to issue regulations which will cutinterchange costs even further.

Durbin agreed with the retailers' arguments in a friend of thecourt brief he filed Thursday in their case.

“In its efforts to accommodate the banks, the board's Final Rulefailed in several respects to follow the law. As the plaintiffshave correctly argued, the board's final rule making exceeded thestatutory authority that Congress gave the board,” Durbin argued inthe brief.

Trish Wexler, spokesman for the Electronic Payments Coalition, an association of card issuesand payment networks that includes credit unions, expressedsurprise at Durbin's move.

“It's remarkable that Senator Durbin is pushing for moreeven after the Fed's report shows retailers getting an $8.4 billionwindfall,” Wexler said. “The merchants promised to lower prices ifCongress capped interchange fees, but consumers haven't seen anybenefit whatsoever. After all this, the only thing that's changedis that retail profits have gotten higher.”