The short answer
Divide total debit interchange income by the number of debit transactions for the same period. That is what your program earns per transaction. Track it year over year: total interchange income can rise while what you earn per transaction falls.
How to calculate it
- From your processor's monthly interchange or settlement summary, add up debit interchange income for the last 12 months.
- Add up debit transactions for the same 12 months.
- Divide income by transactions.
- Repeat for the 12-month periods ending one, two and three years ago.
If your report splits signature and PIN transactions, calculate each one separately as well.
A published reference
The Federal Reserve publishes the average interchange fee per transaction for exempt transactions — mostly transactions on cards from issuers that, together with their affiliates, have less than $10 billion in assets, which includes most community banks. For 2024: $0.61 per transaction on dual-message networks (traditionally signature) and $0.26 on single-message networks (normally PIN).
These are averages across all exempt transactions. Your own blended figure depends on how your transactions split between the two, and on ticket size and where your cardholders shop. Use them as a reference point, not a target.
Source: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Regulation II — Average Debit Card Interchange Fee by Payment Card Network, 2024, exempt transactions (last updated December 19, 2025).
What this number can't tell you
Why it moved. A lower figure can come from more PIN transactions, smaller purchases, or a shift in where cardholders shop. Answering why takes the settlement detail by transaction category — a more detailed report your processor can provide.
Want to see what your own reports can answer? Start with a 20-minute conversation →
If your debit interchange income went up last year, that could still mean bad news.
Total interchange income mostly tracks how busy your cardholders were. It rises almost on its own — while what you earn per transaction can slide for years without anything looking wrong. Only one of those two numbers is in your board packet.
The other isn't hidden. It's just not calculated: total interchange divided by total transactions. Nobody's job is to run that division.
This week's board question:
"What do we earn per debit transaction — and which way has it moved over the last three years?"
If your team can answer that in a week, your program is ahead of most. If they can't — nothing's broken. Nobody was ever asked.
This is the first edition of The Board Question — one question a bank board should be able to get answered, every week.
Originally posted on LinkedIn, September 10, 2026. The Board Question is presented by an AI narrator.
Presented by an AI narrator · PDEX · View the original post on LinkedIn