Banks convince Fed to raise swipe fee limit
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on June 30th, 2011 4:35 am by HL
Banks convince Fed to raise swipe fee limit
The Federal Reserve raised its limit Wednesday on how much merchants must pay to banks each time a debit card is swiped, an eleventh-hour reprieve for the financial industry after a massive lobbying campaign.
The so-called swipe fee, or interchange, will increase from a maximum of 12 cents proposed by the Fed last year to a base charge of 21 cents. Banks can also collect .05 percent of the amount of the transaction to recoup losses from fraud. In addition, the Fed will consider allowing them to receive another cent for each transaction if they take steps to prevent fraud. The new rules will take effect Oct. 1.
Stephen Colbert set to testify to FEC on forming his own super PAC
The Federal Election Commission does serious issues. It does complex debates over mind-numbing campaign laws. It does not do funny.
But now the agency finds itself the target of a very public joke by television comedian and provocateur Stephen Colbert, who is set to testify Thursday on his tongue-in-cheek bid to form an eponymous “super PAC” for the 2012 election season.
The host of “The Colbert Report” on Comedy Central has spent months riffing on the notion of a political committee dedicated to his enrichment, part of a broad satire poking fun at court rulings allowing corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money on elections. He wants permission to let his network’s parent company, Viacom, help him in the effort.
Regulators say mine skirted safety rules
BEAVER, W.Va. — The owner of the West Virginia coal mine where an explosion killed 29 men last year kept two sets of books on safety conditions, an accurate one for itself and a sanitized one for the government, federal regulators said Wednesday.
Managers at Massey Energy pressured workers at the Upper Big Branch mine to omit safety problems from the official set of reports, said Mine Safety and Health Administration official Kevin Stricklin. Workers told investigators that the company wanted to avoid scrutiny from inspectors and keep coal production running smoothly.
Senate votes to streamline confirmation process
The Senate Wednesday voted 79-20 to approve legislation to streamline its confirmation process by reducing the number of positions requiring full Senate confirmation and requiring fewer nominees to go through a full confirmation procedure.
The action, which removes 169 of the total 1,416 jobs now requiring Senate approval, had been something of a foregone conclusion since a bipartisan group of senators, including Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Republican leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) signed on in January.
