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Professor Semeraro Hosts Discussion on Financial Reform Act

December 31, 2010

Professor Semeraro

Professor Steve Semeraro recently moderated a live audio conference titled “A Challenge to the Durbin Amendment:  Is the Fed’s Power to Write Rules Regarding Interchange Fees Unconstitutional?”

It was presented by The American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law Insurance and Financial Services Committee and held on December 14.

The Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank Act requires the Federal Reserve Board to enact rules regarding debit card issuers’ collection of interchange fees from merchants. On October 12, 2010, TCF Bank filed a complaint against the Fed seeking an injunction against the Durbin Amendment and a declaratory judgment that the amendment imposes an unconstitutionally confiscatory regulatory structure on regulated banks in violation of their Fifth Amendment due process rights.

The panelists discussed the constitutionality of the Financial Reform Act’s debit card interchange fee regulation.