Heartland Payments Systems, a leading merchant payments processor, estimates that merchants will save at least $1,000 on debit interchange in the wake of regulations implementing the Durbin Amendment.

The processor reported that between Oct. 1 and Oct. 11, it has passed on $5,532,318 in savings from the regulations to its merchant clients, with $1,992,770 going to restaurant owners.

Based on the transactions in that 10-day period, the processor estimated that 64% of its debit traffic came from cards issued by financial institutions under the cap and that 36% came from financial institutions that are not under the cap. 

Debit card interchange for capped financial institutions averaged 23 cents per transaction and debit interchange to non-capped institutions averaged 43 cents, the processor said.  This translated into an effective debit interchange rate for capped institutions of 0.83% and 1.57% for non-capped institutions.