CONCORD, NH - New Hampshire has introduced a bill that would cap credit and debit card fees to one-percent for state-charted bank-issued cards, CreditNewsline.com reports.

House Bill 1319 includes three parts: a federal cap on big national banks, a state cap for smaller banks, and no cap for small, federally chartered banks. The state cap would affect 18 state-chartered bans, while six smaller banks would be exempt from the cap.

The Durbin Amendment caps debit card interchange fees at roughly 21 cents on financial institutions with $10 billion or more in assets. However, all banks in New Hampshire have assets of less than $2 billion. As a result, New Hampshire??s merchants are finding no benefit from the new federal fee caps, according to the news source.

New Hampshire State Rep. John Hikel, the bill??s sponsor and a small business owner, said existing card fees are unpredictable and "as a merchant, you don??t know what the card is going to cost you."

Christiana Thornton, the president of the New Hampshire Bankers Association, said the bill would "undermine the free market" and "create an un-level playing field."

A price cap would "make it entirely likely that some smaller institutions will need to discontinue issuing debit and credit cards, just to avoid losses in this area," she said.