The Federal Reserve Board voted last week to take the teeth out of its proposed swipe fee rules.

Instead of the expected 12-cent cap on fees banks can charge consumers for debit card transactions, a figure it had proposed last year, the Fed set the cap on these swipe fees at 21 cents per transaction.

Current swipe fees are 44 cents per transaction.

The new rule also allows banks that meet fraud prevention standards to charge a slightly higher fee, up to a maximum of 24 cents per swipe.

The new swipe fees won’t take effect until October, and still exempts “small banks” and credit unions.

As you would expect, some parties claim the Fed buckled under pressure from banks. "The Fed essentially took what had been a win and turned it into a loss," National Retail Federation general counsel Mallory Duncan said. "They took $6 billion a year away from the public and put it into the pocket of the biggest banks in the country."