Talk about the lengths to which online merchant account services providers must go to win customers and supporters. America’s financial institutions, still reeling from last year’s passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, are having a hard time winning over the regulators. With a somewhat desperate flair, the day-time denizens of Wall Street have been busy forking over millions to the most highly accomplished lobbyists they can book in order to convert the Act’s sternest new rules into more financially accommodating entities.

It’s being reported that the beautifully well-heeled folks of the Wall have already surpassed the $100 million mark in this year’s search for a political return on investment in Washington. The wooing of lawmakers does not come cheap. As for the lobbyists themselves, they’ve received $50.3 million in just the second quarter alone. Changes have hit the business of the debit and credit card. Processing equipment, for dealing with the upheavals, has not been limited to shelling out cash, of course. But the lobbying tools and their technicians comprise an important part of the banks’ plan to stay afloat. Moreover, there’s no reason to believe that the extraordinarily meticulous finance wizards of the nation’s moneybagging centers have not been doing their homework. Hardly anyone would think to question their choices when it comes to which regulators were targeted.

This is apart from rules governing a credit card processing service; the fees of debit card swipes, and the trading and lending rules changes have really got the banks unnerved. Nevertheless, lobbying is said to have dipped about 5 percentage points since last year, when the Dodd-Frank Act really came into focus.

So far, the banks’ efforts have paid off, though certainly not as much as they would have hoped. Together with their army of lobbyists, the banks have managed to extend some of the Act’s enforcement deadlines. And, of course, the banks were also able to obtain measured wins on the fees they are still able to charge merchants for purchases made with debit cards.

Because of the recent hullabaloo and upcoming changes concerning federally imposed restrictions on the swipe fee charges that banks are allowed to impose on merchants, all the parties involved are getting creative. In total, merchant services are being improved. As both merchants and banks look for new ways to keep the cash flowing, reports have begun surfacing about an advent of “merchant debit rewards” programs. It seems that in the wake of the widespread shuttering of debit-card rewards programs at banks, merchants decided to make it their business to pick up some of the slack.

How are they going about it? For starters, they’re coaxing, with some pecuniary incentives, no doubt, their sometimes oppositionally situated financial partners into taking part in a twist on the suddenly old-school “bank debit rewards” programs. The deal involves merchants reaching into their own cash coffers to bankroll, if you will, consumer discounts at their stores. In exchange for encouraging account-holders to shop at the designated stores, the ingenious merchants are also paying a minor fee to the participating banks. Win-win-win-win, so far. (Merchant, merchant services provider, bank, consumer.)

But not all banks are taking the bait. It’s expected that more banks will warm more easily to the inventive deal once already-participating institutions begin to see profits and the full repercussions of the impending federal caps on swipe fees are known. The New York Times is reporting that Beneficial Bank, Ally Bank, and the South Carolina Federal Credit Union have already formed partnerships with merchants to get in on the new discounts programs. As for the never-lacking-in-initiative merchants, the roster of current participants includes Sports Authority, Amazon, Subway, and even Apple via iTunes. Some over-hanging controversy throwing shade on the deals is that it they provide a way for advertising to reach consumers’ personal bank statements.

Only time will tell how many more banks decide to get on board the bandwagon. Consumers also will have a say if they will pay with debit cards or request merchants keep accepting credit card payments from them. Meanwhile, merchants continue to seek out more ways to make the most of dwindling, but still available, resources and the nation’s banking centers continue to push for their vision in the aftermath of the one-year anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Act.