We've been asked to testify Wednesday at a House Energy and Commerce hearing on bank interchange fees, which are the fees banks, through their credit card networks, charge merchants for accepting debit or credit cards. The issue of whether certain bank network practices concerning debit and credit cards may be anti-competitive has always been hot in the courts-- with the multi-billion dollar Wal-mart et al vs. Visa and Mastercard class action settlement over "honor all cards rules" and the ongong Justice investigation of Visa and Mastercard's interrelationships. The issue -- which the banks have tried to keep bottled up and low-profile, is getting hotter, as Congress looks at why banks made such huge profits when gas prices spiked last summer. My previous blog discusses the issue of interchange fees in detail as does Way Too High, a fact-filled blog from a small merchant suing the banks.