‘A win for big banks,’ but higher costs for you — here’s how JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and others are looking to get around fee caps

Currently, when large banks process this form of payment, they charge vendors what is called an interchange or swipe fee, which is set at a maximum of $0.21 plus 0.05% of the purchase amount by law, plus a potential additional cent to cover the costs of fraud prevention.

But, this limit only applies when payments go through a third party network. So, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JPMorganChase and others are now exploring acquiring their own network to work around the rule that governs these commissions.

How do interchange levies work?

During a sale, a card network, such as Mastercard, acts as an intermediary between the merchant’s and the customer’s accounts, facilitating the smooth, quick and encrypted flow of funds. Without these networks, banks would need thousands of direct connections and agreements between one another.

In every debit payment, the merchant pays one toll to the network itself for maintenance — called an assessment fee — and another charge, the interchange fee, to the cardholder’s bank (though it is also set by the network). This amount covers the institution’s expenses and liabilities in providing the card and processing payments. Both fall under the wider umbrella of merchant discount fees for accepting debit and credit cards.

But, as Capital One showed when it purchased Discover Financial Services in May 2025, if banks own these systems themselves, they can bypass the legal framework that applies to network-routed transactions, including the limits on interchange rates.

According to sources who spoke to The Wall Street Journal this week, for this reason, each of the above mentioned brands have been assessing the feasibility of purchasing a network from payment solutions company Fiserv.

What would increased interchange fees mean for consumers?

Interchange fee maximums were added as an amendment to the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 to keep transaction commissions “reasonable” as debit rose to dominate payment types.

The idea was to prevent consumers from shouldering high interchange levies, as when merchant’s costs rise, their prices are likely to, as well (and surveys show this).

But, some argue that the savings aren’t always passed to shoppers, in part because interchange fees are only a portion of those that the vendor pays with every transaction.

In addition, banks say that the extra revenue from flexible interchange fees enabled them to offer savings to both merchants and consumers elsewhere, such as through rewards programs, which they’ve cut back on since the cap was implemented.

“By regulating the interchange fee, the goal of the Durbin Amendment was to lower merchants’ costs of accepting debit cards and to pass along the cost savings to consumers in terms of reduced retail prices. A few years after the regulation was in place, however, it is unclear how effectively the regulation has fulfilled its intention,” states one 2014 study.

That research also found that interchange limits had little impact on stores’ debit restrictions, including minimum amounts to use debit, debit use surcharges or refusal to accept debit payments.

“If a merchant imposed debit restrictions prior to the regulation, it is likely the merchant would continue to do so post-regulation,” the paper says. This explains why some businesses don’t accept, for example, American Express, which operates as both a card issuer and a card network.

Still, experts do say consumers may end up feeling the difference if merchant-facing charges are hiked in this way.