Wells Fargo Ends Debit Rewards Program, Days after Chase

Wells Fargo, the bank with the largest U.S. branch network, will no longer makes its debit card rewards programs available to newly enrolled participants in light of the proposed limits on interchange fees.

“Due to pending regulatory changes that are expected to result in a significant reduction in fees retailers pay issuers for debit-card transactions, Wells Fargo will no longer be enrolling customers in the debit-card rewards programs,” Lisa Westermann, a spokeswoman at the San Francisco-based bank, said in an e-mail according to Bloomberg.

The change applies to both stand-alone programs and those cardholders who combine their debit and credit accounts into one program. Wells Fargo customers already signed up for the program and credit card holders will not be impacted. 

Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf in his annual letter to shareholders claimed that capping debit interchange fees would “make no sense” and interfere with free- market economics, according to Bloomberg. (Read more)

Chase also recently announced it would halt its debit card rewards program after July 19 in light of potential caps on interchange fees, according to ABC News.


 

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