II 

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. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Consumer Debit Card 

5 Protection Act of 2014’’. 

6 SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO ELECTRONIC FUND TRANSFER 

7 ACT. 

8 The Electronic Fund Transfer Act (15 U.S.C. 1693 

9 et seq.) is amended— 


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1 (1) in section 908(c), by inserting ‘‘, or in the 

2 case of an electronic debit transaction, as defined in 

3 section 920(c)(5), seven business days except as oth4 erwise allowed by the Bureau to protect against 

5 fraud,’’; and 

6 (2) in section 909— 

7 (A) in subsection (a), in the first sentence, 

8 by striking ‘‘A consumer shall’’ and inserting 

9 ‘‘Except as provided in subsection (b), a con10 sumer shall’’; 

11 (B) by redesignating subsections (b) 

12 through (e) as subsections (c) through (f), re13 spectively; and 

14 (C) by inserting the following after sub15 section (a): 

16 ‘‘(b) UNAUTHORIZED DEBIT CARD TRANS17 ACTIONS.— 

18 ‘‘(1) LIABILITY OF CONSUMER.—A consumer 

19 shall be liable for the unauthorized use of a debit 

20 card, only if— 

21 ‘‘(A) the debit card is an accepted debit 

22 card; 

23 ‘‘(B) the liability is not in excess of $50; 

24 ‘‘(C) the issuer has provided the consumer 

25 with a description of a means by which the 


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1 issuer may be notified of loss or theft of the 

2 card; 

3 ‘‘(D) the unauthorized use occurs before 

4 the issuer has been notified that an unauthor5 ized use of the debit card has occurred or may 

6 occur as the result of loss, theft, or otherwise; 

7 and 

8 ‘‘(E) the issuer has provided a method 

9 whereby the user of such card can be identified 

10 as the person authorized to use it. 

11 ‘‘(2) NOTIFICATION.—For purposes of this sub12 section, an issuer has been notified when such steps 

13 as may be reasonably required in the ordinary 

14 course of business to provide the issuer with the per15 tinent information have been taken, whether or not 

16 any particular officer, employee, or agent of the 

17 issuer does in fact receive such information. 

18 ‘‘(3) BURDEN OF PROOF.—In any action by an 

19 issuer to enforce liability for the use of a debit card, 

20 the burden of proof is upon the issuer to show that 

21 the use was authorized or, if the use was unauthor22 ized, then the burden of proof is upon the issuer to 

23 show that the conditions of liability for the unau24 thorized use of a debit card, as set forth in para25 graph (1), have been met. 


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1 ‘‘(4) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in 

2 this subsection imposes liability upon a consumer for 

3 the unauthorized use of a debit card in excess of his 

4 liability for such use under other applicable law or 

5 under any agreement with the issuer. 

6 ‘‘(5) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this subsection, 

7 the terms ‘debit card’ and ‘issuer’ have the same 

8 meaning as in section 920(c).’’. 

Æ 


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