Of these savings, restaurant merchants received more than $75,000,000, lodging merchants received nearly $10,000,000, retail merchants received almost $30,000,000 and petroleum/c-store merchants received more than $55,000,000.

Designed to reduce the cost of accepting debit cards for business owners, the Durbin Amendment, part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, caps debit card interchange rates for issuing banks with more than $10 billion in assets at 21 cents per transaction, plus one cent for issuers with an effective fraud prevention system, and 0.05 percent of the volume of transaction - a significant reduction from the average of 44 cents that merchants paid per debit card purchase before the Durbin Amendment.

"Both business owners and consumers are feeling the relief of lower debit card swipe fees," said Bob Carr, Heartland's chairman and CEO. "Our merchant customers are putting their 'Durbin Dollars' to work in a variety of ways, such as opening new locations, purchasing new equipment, fixtures and delivery cars, offsetting rising fuel and food costs and more. Consumers are also benefitting from our merchants not raising prices, and from non-Heartland merchants such as Home Depot, which lowered prices as a result of overall lower operating costs thanks in part to the regulation."

John Bertram, owner of Stuft Pizza Bar & Grill in La Quinta, Calif., added, "The cost of everything, especially food, has gone up but our processing expenses have gone down. Thanks to Heartland passing through the Durbin savings, which have totaled more than $10,000 since last October, we've been able to keep our menu pricing the same for consumers and are exploring options for opening a second location."

While actual figures are determined by the volume and dollar amount of debit transactions, among other factors, on average, Heartland's merchants are saving approximately $1,000 annually per location. In aggregate, these funds represent a significant capital infusignificant capital infusion for state and local economies.

Heartland also found:

60 percent of its signature debit sales volume qualified as regulated
64 percent of its PIN debit volume qualified as regulated
On average, there is a savings of $0.19 per transaction for regulated (vs. non-regulated)
The average signature debit non-regulated interchange fee per transaction is $0.42
The average signature debit regulated interchange fee per transaction is $0.23
On average, there is a savings of 68 basis points for regulated (vs. non-regulated)
The average signature debit non-regulated effective rate is 1.48 percent
The average signature debit regulated effective rate is 0.80 percent