Abstract
- On the evening of May 13, 2010 the Senate agreed that debit card fees should be regulated by passing the Durbin Amendment as a last-minute addition to the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (known as the Dodd-Frank Act) and authority to regulate debit card fees was granted to the Federal Reserve. Our research uses an event study methodology to examine the financial impact of debit card swipe fee regulation on the restaurant industry. While the new regulation is expected to have an impact on Visa and MasterCard, it is unknown how the change in regulation will impact the restaurant industry, where debit card transactions represent a large percentage of payments.