Talk about a “swipe” out.
Chafing under new financial regulations, some of the nation’s biggest banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America, are mulling limits on the size of debit-card purchases, The Post has learned.
Such a move would cap the amount of money — banks are weighing between $50 and $100 — consumers could shell out on individual transactions using their debit card.
In New York, it means most customers would have a tough time using a debit card to pay for a meal out with the family or even a typical run to the grocery store.
The limits being contemplated would be imposed on debit-card holders regardless of how much money they held in their checking accounts and are likely to push customers to use credit cards to cover the difference.
“There’s a real irony here that just as consumers are practicing greater levels of thrift through their debit cards, they might be presented with increased cost and a higher degree of uncertainty,” said Doug Johnson, vice president at the American Banker’s Association.
Around 520 million people have debit cards in the US, while 440 million have credit cards, according to the latest available data from MasterCard and Visa.
Talk of a debit-card cap comes as banks battle over so-called “swipe” fees that merchants pay banks when customers use their debt cards. The Dodd-Frank act inked last year granted the Federal Reserve the authority to establish a “reasonable rate” for such fees.
In December, the Fed surprised the banking industry and set off a lobbying firestorm by proposing to slash swipe fees by 80 percent, from 63 cents to a maximum of 12 cents.
On average, banks collect about $15 billion a year from swipe fees, or an average of $200 a year per family.
Banks argue that the fees benefit major retailers like Walmart and Target at the expense of consumers. They say they won’t be able to offer free checking or protect customers from fraud without revenues from the fees.
“If the final rules that are issued in April look like the [Fed’s] draft, there’s no question that it will impact how we and other issuers price deposit and payment services and what features and benefits are included,” said a Bank of America spokesman.
A Citigroup spokeswoman declined to comment, as did JPMorgan.
Lawmakers and regulators, including Federal Deposit Insurance Co. chief Sheila Bair and Fed boss Ben Bernanke, expressed concerns about the proposed rules yesterday during a congressional hearing on debit fees.
“I haven’t been able to see who we assure that the ultimate beneficiary that we are advocating for, consumers, really get the benefit from this,” House Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.) said at the hearing. mark.decambre@nypost.com