On the same day a merchant group's study claimed retailers pass on interchange savings to consumers,debit card issuers released their own study that claims merchantsdo no such thing.

“As part of their lobbying tactics, giant retailers promised tolower prices for their customers if Congress passed the Durbinamendment. Two years after implementation, retailers have takenhome an $8 billion annual windfall while their customers stillaren't seeing a discount for using debit,” said Sam Fabens,spokesman for the Electronic Payments Coalition, which sponsored the study.

To collect the data for the field research, 32 shopping tripswere performed at 16 stores nationwide. Identical products werepurchased at each store and compared: one shopping trip inSeptember 2011 before implementation of the Durbin amendment; onein September 2012 – a year after the implementation of the Durbinamendment; and one in September 2013 – two years after theimplementation of the Durbin amendment.