Federal Reserve Seeks to Lower ‘Swipe Fees,’ to Benefit of College Bookstores

The Federal Reserve has issued a rule that would cap the fees that debit-card providers charge merchants to process payments at 12 cents per transaction. The proposed cap would benefit college bookstores, which paid some $85-million in so-called swipe fees in 2003 and have lobbied hard for limits on the fees. The current average fee is 44 cents per transaction, according to the Federal Reserve.