Four of the largest US banks—JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and PNC—have explored buying STAR and Accel, the debit networks owned by processor Fiserv, according to press reports that began with The Wall Street Journal on July 6, 2026. The price under discussion is about $15 billion. The logic behind the talks is a bold regulatory play: by owning a debit network, the banks could escape the fee cap they have fought for 15 years.
STAR and Accel run debit in the background
US debit is more fragmented than the European model. Alongside Visa and Mastercard , about a dozen EFT networks (electronic funds transfer) compete for the routing of each transaction. Most grew out of ATM cash withdrawals and PIN debit: STAR, Accel, PULSE, NYCE, Shazam, and others. They handle authorization and settlement for debit card payments. STAR, one of the largest, serves more than 115 million cardholders through some 2,800 issuing institutions, according to reports.
That variety is by design. Another provision of the Durbin Amendment requires every US debit card to carry at least two unaffiliated networks, so the merchant can route each transaction over the cheaper one. It is this routing market, and the fees that come with it, that the banks are after.
Durbin caps debit interchange, but only on third-party networks
Passed in 2010 as part of the Dodd-Frank Act and implemented through the Federal Reserve’s Regulation II, the Durbin Amendment caps the interchange that banks with more than $10 billion in assets can collect on debit card payments. The cap works out to about $0.22 + 0.05% per transaction, a fraction of what unregulated cards earn.
- Regulated banks ($10 billion or more in assets): capped at about $0.22 + 0.05% per debit transaction.
- *Smaller banks and credit unions (under $10 billion)*: exempt from the cap.
- The key detail: the cap applies only to transactions routed over a third-party network.
- The reported theory: a large bank that owns the network carrying its own cards would fall outside the cap.
The gap is huge. A capped transaction earns the issuer about 22 cents. Unregulated debit cards carry interchange of 1.20% + $0.10 to 1.65% + $0.15, and as much as 1.90% + $0.25, according to Merchant Cost Consulting. On a $50 purchase, the fee would go from about $0.25 to nearly $1. The issuer collects the three- to fourfold increase, and the merchant ultimately pays it.
| Metric | Regulated debit ($10B+ banks) | Exempt debit / bank-owned network |
|---|---|---|
| Interchange cap | ≈ $0.22 + 0.05% | None |
| Typical range | ≈ $0.22–$0.24 | 1.20% + $0.10 to 1.90% + $0.25 |
| On a $50 payment | ≈ $0.25 | ≈ $0.70 to $1.20 |
| Who collects | Issuing bank | Issuing bank |
| Who ultimately pays | Merchant | Merchant |
Capital One’s Discover deal, with PULSE, set the precedent
The idea gained traction after Capital One bought Discover, a deal announced in February 2024 and closed in May 2025. Besides the Discover credit network, the acquisition brought in PULSE, one of the major US debit networks. Owning the network end to end, as issuer and routing infrastructure, turns a regulated cost line into a profit center. That is the model the big banks now want to replicate with STAR and Accel.
Visa, Mastercard, and Europe are watching
For Visa and Mastercard, the news cuts both ways. Banks that own their debit networks could divert volume from Visa and Mastercard rails, and the episode comes at a tense moment. A $38 billion antitrust settlement that won preliminary approval in June 2026 requires a 10-basis-point cut in credit card fees over five years and caps them at 1.25% for eight years. Visa’s stock fell more than 10% over four weeks.
Europe offers a contrast. In the European Economic Area, the 2015 Interchange Fee Regulation caps interchange at 0.2% for debit and 0.3% for credit. The cap is expressed as a percentage, has no loophole tied to network ownership, and comes with no US-style dual-routing mandate. That keeps France’s domestic scheme, Cartes Bancaires (CB) CB, out of reach of a “buy your network, escape the cap” strategy. The US fight is a reminder that a cap is only as strong as its scope.
Merchants would bear the cost
- Higher acceptance costs: merchants that take 40% to 50% of their payments on debit would certainly feel the impact, according to Merchant Cost Consulting.
- A broken bargain: banks say the cap cost them revenue that paid for free checking and debit rewards, while merchants credit it with holding down prices. Getting around it would reopen the debate on surcharging, passing fees on to the customer.
- Political risk: a deal explicitly built to dodge a statutory cap would invite a response from Congress and regulators.
- A lesson for Europe: a cap is only as robust as its scope, a point worth remembering as the upcoming Payment Services Regulation (PSR) and account-to-account schemes reshape payment economics.
Nothing has been signed. The talks are preliminary and may not produce a deal. But the stakes go beyond the fate of STAR and Accel to a question of principle: can a rule that caps fees survive if the regulated banks can buy the infrastructure that triggers the cap?