The Hill News

New limits on debit card fees have discouraged mobile carriers from competing with Visa and Mastercard, according to a top AT&T executive.

The executive told Reuters that AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA scrapped plans to launch a competing mobile payments processing network due in large part to the so-called Durbin amendment. That amendment was a late entry into the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, and requires the Federal Reserve to set limits on the amount of fees banks and networks can charge retailers for swiping debit cards.

"Some changes in the banking laws occurred with the amendments that were put in with the Dodd-Frank bill," said John Stankey, AT&T's head of business solutions. "As transaction fees were limited and things were changed, it ki! nd of changed the business model."

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