The Durbin amendment seeks to regulate interchange fees on debit transactions. This fee is an element of the price a merchant pays whenever a consumer uses a credit or debit card. It partially compensates the cardholder's bank for the cost and risk of offering payment cards to consumers such as clearing costs, billing and collection, fraud recovery and customer service. In a provision reminiscent of Soviet-style economic planning, the Durbin amendment requires the Federal Reserve to determine interchange transaction fees for debit that are "reasonable and proportional" to the "actual cost" to issuers with respect to the transaction.