Payment Cards: a million restaurants tell card companies to sort out "swipe fees."

The National Restaurant Association is represented as an executive committee member of the Merchants Payments Coalition, a broad coalition representing millions of businesses, from restaurants to florists and convenience stores.

Last week, the Association sent a letter to every member of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, urging committee members to support full implementation of the Durbin Amendment, which Congress passed last summer as part of the financial-services reform bill. The amendment was approved by a 64-33 vote, with strong support from Democrats and Republicans.

The National Restaurant Association "urges you to allow the Federal Reserve to continue the process of implementing the provision as directed under the law," said Association Executive Vice President for Policy and Government Affairs Scott DeFife in the letter.

"Many of these swipe fees and restrictions benefit the card networks and card-issuing banks at the expense of merchants - and ultimately, consumers," said DeFife. "Swipe fees on debit and credit card transactions, which amount to USD48,000 million annually, have been a growing expense for restaurants, and are the third highest cost for many establishments, usually following only labour and food expenses."

That's a surprise: where are the marketing costs?

"Debit transactions are directly drawn from a consumer's current account, yet the interchange rate on debit transactions continues to increase," DeFife said. "This provision would modernise our financial payments system, provide relief to businesses who have seen their interchange fees sky-rocket in recent years and benefit consumers in the form of lower prices," he wrote. "We urge your support in allowing the Federal Reserve process to continue without delay."

The Durbin Amendment authorised the Federal Reserve to publish regulations to ensure that the swipe fees merchants get charged when customers pay by debit card are reasonable and proportional to the cost of processing those transactions.

There is a more basic question: if a million businesses in a market where cards are king suddenly stopped accepting them, surely they would get rapid action.

Even a one-day strike would have a serious impact.

So why don't they?