WASHINGTON €" On Monday, radio and print advertisements began running in Washington, D.C., on behalf of businesses and retailers across the country urging the U.S. Senate to support commonsense credit and debit swipe fee reform. Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) has been advocating for swipe fee reform, and his amendment (#3932) to the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 would take critical steps to rein in excessive swipe fees while protecting 98 percent of credit unions.

Credit card swipe fees - also known as interchange fees - squeezed American consumers and businesses to the tune of $48 billion in 2008. These hidden fees are set in secret by the banks and credit card companies and charged to store owners every time they run a customer€™s credit card. Americans pay the highest swipe fee rates in the industrialized world.

In the last year, small-business owners have gathered nearly 4 million petition signatures from their customers and delivered them to members of Congress, calling on them to reform these unfair fees.

The Food Marketing Institute, National Association of Convenience Stores, National Grocers Association, National Retail Federation, National Restaurant Association and the Retail Industry Leaders Association are among the members of the Merchants Payments Coalition, representing thousands of companies and employing millions of Americans. They support Senate passage of the Durbin amendment on swipe fee reform.