You now have until Aug. 11 to submit your comments on a proposal for requiring debt card issuers to enable, and allow merchants to choose from, at least two unaffiliated networks for card-not-present debit card transactions, such as online purchases, the Federal Reserve said Tuesday.
The agency had originally set July 12 as the comments due date.
In a release, the agency said it was extending the comment period to allow interested persons more time to analyze the issues at hand and prepare comments.
In May, the Fed said its proposal, which would change its Regulation II (Debit Card Interchange Fees and Routing), was necessary “in light of information indicating that often only one network is enabled for such transactions.”
Under the current regulation, at least two unaffiliated payment card networks must be enabled on a debit card to process debit card transactions. The Fed has asserted that when it promulgated the rule, the market had not developed solutions to broadly support multiple networks over which merchants could choose to route card-not-present transactions.
The agency in May said that its proposal would clarify that card-not-present transactions are a “particular type of transaction” for which two unaffiliated payment card networks must be available. The proposed revisions would further clarify, the agency said, the responsibility of the debit card issuer in ensuring that at least two unaffiliated networks have in fact been enabled to comply with the regulation.