The suit has been brought by some of the US’s largest retailers, including Walmart, Sears Roebuck and Safeway against the biggest banks which jointly own Visa and MasterCard.

The retailers are seeking damages of $US13.1 billion to $US15.8 billion, alleging a decade of over-debit charges by two companies

The retailers allege that Visa and MasterCard have collected billions of dollars in illegal charges by forcing the retailers to use their branded debit cards instead of generic bank cards linked to customers accounts.

Retailers say the processing of the big brand cards is costly, slow and insecure.

Under federal anti-trust law, the damages would be trebled if the suit were successful.