The Federal Reserve will get authority to limit interchange, or 'swipe' fees, that merchants pay for each debit-card transaction. The measure, pushed by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., lets retailers refuse credit cards for purchases under $10 and offer discounts based on the form of payment. The measure also directs the Fed to issue rules that let merchants route debit- card transactions on more than one network. That 'provides additional competition to a previously non-competitive part of the market,' Durbin said in a statement June 21. Visa and MasterCard, the world's biggest payments networks, set interchange rates and pass that money to card-issuers including Bank of America and JPMorgan. Interchange is the largest component of the fees merchants pay to accept Visa and MasterCard debit cards. The fees totaled $19.7 billion and averaged 1.63 percent of each sale last year, according to the Nilson Report, an industry newsletter. The industry fought off earlier efforts to regulate interchange fees, including a Durbin-sponsored bill that remains in committee, by saying the income is needed to offset the risk of lending money. That argument doesn't apply to interchange on debit cards, which tap funds in consumer checking accounts. Shifting the focus to debit cards may have helped win support from some Republicans, with Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, calling the scaled-down version a 'reasonable approach.' The amendment directs the Fed to ensure that debit-swipe fees are 'reasonable and proportional' to the cost of processing transactions. The provision will take effect a year after enactment. Durbin altered his proposal to exempt lenders with assets of less than $10 billion, or 99 percent of banks. That failed to win the support of trade groups representing community banks and credit unions, who said the measure will make their cards more expensive than those issued by bigger lenders. 