CHICAGO–Additional amicus briefs have been filed in the ongoing legal challenge to the Illinois Interchange Fee Prohibition Act (IFPA), including what America’s Credit Unions called a “notable brief” from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).
As the CU Daily reported, following a judge’s ruling the largely upheld the Illinois Interchange Fee Prohibition Act (IFPA), America’s Credit Unions, the Illinois Credit Union League, the American Bankers Association and the Illinois Bankers Association have filed an appeal with the U.S Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
The plaintiffs have expressed “deep disappointment” after the federal judge upheld a central part of Illinois’ novel Interchange Fee Prohibition Act(IFPA), clearing the way for the state’s first-in-the-nation ban on certain credit and debit card “swipe fees.”
In its filing, the OCC argues that the Illinois law interferes with federally authorized banking powers and could disrupt the national payments system by restricting interchange fees and limiting the use of transaction data used to manage fraud and card services. The OCC also warns that allowing the law to stand could create a patchwork of conflicting state rules governing payments, according to America’s Credit Unions.
‘Erodes Essential Infrastructure’
The brief states that if IFPA is not permanently enjoined, it could “erode the essential infrastructure of the payments system” and require institutions to spend “staggering” sums to comply with a single state regime, the trade group said.
Additional briefs were also filed by the Bank Policy Institute, The Clearing House, Consumer Bankers Association, Electronic Payments Coalition, and the Electronic Transactions Association.
“We appreciate the strong support for our legal challenge to the Illinois Interchange Fee Prohibition Act in the amicus briefs filed Friday from a number of important stakeholders in the case,” Ben Jackson, EVP with the Illinois Bankers Association, and Ashley Sharp, SVP with the Illinois Credit Union League, said in a joint statement. “Most notably, we welcome the OCC’s conclusion that this misguided state law is clearly preempted by federal law, and the court should halt its implementation.”
