LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION urging the New York State Congressional deleg-
ation to take steps to ensure the Wall Street Reform and Consumer
Protection Act does not result in increased fees on consumers at
exempted institutions

WHEREAS, Under a certain provision (Section 1075) of the Wall Street
Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Public Law No. 111-203), the Federal
Reserve Board is required to issue regulations that would provide for
reasonable interchange transaction fees for electronic debit trans-
actions and place limitations on payment card network restrictions; and
WHEREAS, In drafting Section 1075, Congress included language to
exempt small issuers from this provision, defining small institutions as
those "with less than $10 billion in total assets."; small issuers rely
on debit interchange fees to provide free checking services to their
customers and to cover costs associated with fraud prevention and data
security; if these costs were not fully recoverable, small issuers would
be unable to offer debit services to their customers, and the result
could be decreased consumer choice and higher fees; because of these
concerns, Congress specifically exempted those institutions with less
than $10 billion in assets; and
WHEREAS, The Federal Reserve Board's current debit interchange fee
regulatory proposal (Docket No. R-1404) could lead to the unintended
consequences of increasing costs on consumers and limiting consumer
choice; the proposal does not include any provision designed to enforce
the carve-out for small issuers; it is incumbent on Congress to revisit
this issue and help ensure that these regulations do not ultimately
result in less choice and higher costs for consumers; now, therefore, be
it
RESOLVED, That the New York State Congressional delegation be and
hereby is respectively memorialized by this Legislative Body to stop or
delay the implementation of Section 1075 so that statutory changes can
be made to ensure institutions with less than $10 billion in assets are
exempted without consequence in order to ensure Section 1075 does not
result in increased fees on consumers at exempted institutions; and be
it further
RESOLVED, That copies of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be tran-
smitted to each member of the Congressional delegation from the State of
New York.