By Kevin Drawbaugh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The first targeted legislative challenges to 2010's Dodd-Frank financial regulation reforms are emerging in the U.S. Congress, with nine senators introducing a bipartisan bill on Tuesday to delay a proposed cap on debit card interchange fees.
The cap, proposed by the Federal Reserve as required under Dodd-Frank, threatens the profits of card networks Visa and Mastercard, as well as big banks such as Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase.
Financial industry lobbyists have been working hard to block it.
Democratic Senator Jon Tester and eight other senators from both parties have introduced a bill to suspend implementation of the cap and study the fees for two years.
"The stakes are simply too high to move forward with this rule without a closer look," Tester said in a statement.
The cap at the Fed's proposed level would cost banks about $13 billion (8 billion pounds) in annual revenue, according to CardHub.com.
Less than a year after the passage of Dodd-Frank -- a response to the worst financial crisis in generations and a severe recession -- Wall Street and the banks are making some headway in Congress on rolling back the reforms.
Republicans in the House of Representatives on Wednesday will stage their first outright challenge to Dodd-Frank with a fistful of bills favouring private equity firms, derivatives end-users and corporate CEOs.
The bills face a long road ahead. Republicans may be able to obtain House passage, perhaps with Democratic support on some issues. But Senate action could be hard to come by and the Obama administration could veto any measure it opposes.
If they remain narrowly focussed, one or more of the House measures could advance, but regulatory relief bills tend to expand and lose momentum as more features get added, said MF Global financial services policy analyst Jaret Seiberg.
"That doesn't mean a bill cannot be adopted this year. It is just an uphill fight," he said.
(Editing by Dave Zimmerman)
