Over the past few years, the U.S. banking industry has been working to comply with numerous regulatory reforms the government has enacted in response to the global financial crisis. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act introduced significant regulatory changes for U.S. banks. The Durbin Amendment (Section 920) was a late addition to the Dodd-Frank Act that went into effect in October 2011. Its aim is to lower consumer prices and to support small businesses by capping debit card interchange ("swipe") fees that merchants pay to banks. Consistent with our original expectations, the implementation of the Durbin Amendment has had no immediate impact on U.S. bank ratings. Banks have responded to the lost swipe fee revenue by introducing
