House Hearing Highlights Importance of Swipe Fee Reform for Small Businesses

ARLINGTON, VA — February 17, 2011 — The Food Marketing Institute (FMI) released the following statement from President and Chief Executive Officer Leslie G. Sarasin about today’s hearing by the House Financial Services, Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee on swipe fee reforms passed by Congress last year:

“Swipe fees have spiraled out of control for small businesses, including your locally owned grocery store. Despite the fact that the cost of processing these transactions has decreased, swipe fees have tripled in the past decade for small businesses.

Visa, MasterCard and the world’s biggest banks are spending billions of dollars to protect their unfair and highly lucrative status quo. Yet, nothing is more frightening to
small businesses than an unpredictable cost increase that is not budgeted for, especially when the increase is excessive.

Bipartisan swipe fee reforms passed by Congress last year will bring competition and fairness to the broken debit payments market. We strongly urge members of Congress to stand up for small businesses by ensuring these reforms are implemented on time and as written.”

About FMI

As the food industry association, FMI works with and on behalf of the entire industry to advance a safer, healthier and more efficient consumer food supply chain. FMI brings together a wide range of members across the value chain — from retailers that sell to consumers, to producers that supply food and other products, as well as the wide variety of companies providing critical services — to amplify the collective work of the industry. www.FMI.org