Visa, Mastercard Face Lower Cap on Swipe Fees Under Fed Plan (2)

Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. are facing a new round of regulatory challenges, with the Federal Reserve proposing lower caps on the fees banks and payment companies can charge merchants when consumers swipe their debit cards at checkout.

The cap on those fees would be cut about 28% to 14.4 cents per transaction plus 0.04% of the transaction amount under a plan that the Federal Reserve’s board of governors proposed Wednesday. The current limit is 21 cents per transaction plus 0.05%, a maximum set more than a decade ago. The fraud-prevention adjustment would increase to 1.3 cents from 1 cent ...