Community Bank Relief Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The bill amends the Electronic Fund Transfer Act provision governing reasonable payment card transaction fees. It directs the Board to update the statutory amount for inflation: first by comparing October 2025 CPI to October 2009 CPI, and then every year after by January 15 using the annual CPI increase for October. The practical effect is to let the covered payment-card fee amount rise automatically with inflation instead of remaining fixed in nominal dollars.
Who Benefits and How
Community banks, debit card issuers, payment card networks, and smaller financial institutions benefit if the fee amount they can receive better reflects inflation since 2009 and future CPI changes. The Federal Reserve Board benefits from a clear update schedule instead of ad hoc rulemaking pressure. Financial institutions that process covered transactions may recover more revenue per transaction if the adjusted amount rises.
Who Bears the Burden and How
The Federal Reserve Board must calculate and publish the initial July 1, 2026 adjustment and annual January 15 adjustments after that. Merchants and retailers may bear higher debit-card acceptance costs if adjusted fees increase. Payment processors and card networks must update systems and disclosures to reflect the Board's revised amount.
Key Provisions
- Requires a July 1, 2026 inflation adjustment using CPI growth from October 2009 to October 2025.
- Requires annual January 15 payment-card fee adjustments using October CPI increases.
- Amends the Electronic Fund Transfer Act reasonable-fee rule for payment card transactions.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Requires the Federal Reserve Board to inflation-adjust the Electronic Fund Transfer Act payment-card transaction fee amount by July 1, 2026, using CPI growth from October 2009 to October 2025, and annually after that by January 15 using October CPI growth.
Key Policy Areas
financial_services, payments, inflation_adjustment
Primary Purpose
Requires the Federal Reserve Board to inflation-adjust the Electronic Fund Transfer Act payment-card transaction fee amount by July 1, 2026, using CPI growth from October 2009 to October 2025, and annually after that by January 15 using October CPI growth.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- Community banks
- Debit card issuers
- Payment card networks
- Financial institutions
Identified Costs
- Federal Reserve Board
- Merchants
- Retailers
- Payment processors
Sponsors
Andy Barr
R-KY | Primary Sponsor
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the House Committee on Financial Services.
Introduced in House
Mr. Barr introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Community banks, Debit card issuers, Payment processors
Positive-direction: Community banks, Debit card issuers
Negative-direction: Payment processors
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "agencies"
- → ['Federal Reserve Board']
- "beneficiaries"
- → ['Community banks', 'Debit card issuers', 'Payment card networks']
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology