The Durbin Routing Mess

The ruling by Judge Leon that told the Federal Reserve Board it had erred too far in favor of the banks has gotten a lot of attention over the past two weeks. The implications for any institution that is involved in handling or accepting debit cards are far-reaching and put two issues back on the table from Durbin – pricing and routing.  While pricing is the most direct (and quantifiable) impact, I’d like to talk about the routing and “debit choice” issue that is also on the table.