The U.S. Federal Reserve asked that its rules on debit card transaction fees and processing be left in place while it appeals a decision that they are illegal, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Maintaining that the regulations would provide stability in the debit card marketplace while disagreements on rules are settled, according to a court filing by the Fed in Washington, D.C. “If the regulations here were vacated by the District Court, there would be no legally binding standards for determining the permissible amount of interchange fees an issuer could receive with respect to a debit card transaction and no limitations on exclusive routing restrictions imposed by issuers and payment networks on debit card transactions, lawyers for the Fed wrote. The Fed will ask the appeals court for an expedited appeal, and on that basis, the central bank has the support of retailer groups who sued to challenge the regulations, according to its filing yesterday.
