[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2200 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

113th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2200

 To provide debit card holders with consumer protections equivalent to 
    those available to credit card holders, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             April 2, 2014

 Mr. Warner (for himself and Mr. Kirk) introduced the following bill; 
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, 
                           and Urban Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To provide debit card holders with consumer protections equivalent to 
    those available to credit card holders, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Consumer Debit Card Protection Act 
of 2014''.

SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO ELECTRONIC FUND TRANSFER ACT.

    The Electronic Fund Transfer Act (15 U.S.C. 1693 et seq.) is 
amended--
            (1) in section 908(c), by inserting ``, or in the case of 
        an electronic debit transaction, as defined in section 
        920(c)(5), seven business days except as otherwise allowed by 
        the Bureau to protect against fraud,''; and
            (2) in section 909--
                    (A) in subsection (a), in the first sentence, by 
                striking ``A consumer shall'' and inserting ``Except as 
                provided in subsection (b), a consumer shall'';
                    (B) by redesignating subsections (b) through (e) as 
                subsections (c) through (f), respectively; and
                    (C) by inserting the following after subsection 
                (a):
    ``(b) Unauthorized Debit Card Transactions.--
            ``(1) Liability of consumer.--A consumer shall be liable 
        for the unauthorized use of a debit card, only if--
                    ``(A) the debit card is an accepted debit card;
                    ``(B) the liability is not in excess of $50;
                    ``(C) the issuer has provided the consumer with a 
                description of a means by which the issuer may be 
                notified of loss or theft of the card;
                    ``(D) the unauthorized use occurs before the issuer 
                has been notified that an unauthorized use of the debit 
                card has occurred or may occur as the result of loss, 
                theft, or otherwise; and
                    ``(E) the issuer has provided a method whereby the 
                user of such card can be identified as the person 
                authorized to use it.
            ``(2) Notification.--For purposes of this subsection, an 
        issuer has been notified when such steps as may be reasonably 
        required in the ordinary course of business to provide the 
        issuer with the pertinent information have been taken, whether 
        or not any particular officer, employee, or agent of the issuer 
        does in fact receive such information.
            ``(3) Burden of proof.--In any action by an issuer to 
        enforce liability for the use of a debit card, the burden of 
        proof is upon the issuer to show that the use was authorized 
        or, if the use was unauthorized, then the burden of proof is 
        upon the issuer to show that the conditions of liability for 
        the unauthorized use of a debit card, as set forth in paragraph 
        (1), have been met.
            ``(4) Rule of construction.--Nothing in this subsection 
        imposes liability upon a consumer for the unauthorized use of a 
        debit card in excess of his liability for such use under other 
        applicable law or under any agreement with the issuer.
            ``(5) Definitions.--As used in this subsection, the terms 
        `debit card' and `issuer' have the same meaning as in section 
        920(c).''.
                                 <all>