What They Are Saying: Community Banks, Credit Unions, Taxpayer Organizations All Strongly Oppose ‘Big-Box Bait-and-Switch’
“Far from increasing competition in the credit card marketplace, this legislation will hurt consumers and benefit big-box retailers by reducing the number of credit card issuers competing for consumers’ business, removing a consumer’s choice of preferred card network, wringing out the competitive differences among card products, limiting popular credit card rewards programs, and putting the nation’s private-sector payments system under the micromanagement of the Federal Reserve Board.”
Financial Services Industry Joint Trades Association Letter to Congress
“We are disappointed that Senators Durbin, Marshall, Welch and Vance and Representatives Gooden and Lofgren have again introduced the harmful and misleading Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA). Expanding interchange price controls and routing mandates to credit cards is bad policy, pushed by big box retailers who are looking to pad their bottom line. Contrary to merchants’ deceptive claims, data shows consumers end up paying more across the board – from higher prices of goods, to more expensive card products at their financial institutions, and fewer rewards and benefits on their card purchases.”
NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger
“This bill would allow these large merchants to use the cheapest credit card processing option, with no requirement to keep consumers’ data safe or return savings back to them. … Interchange is the cost of doing business. Merchants like Target and Walmart reap the benefits of credit card usage with immediate payments, protection from fraud, and typically larger purchases by consumers – but don’t want to pay the cost of accepting credit cards.”
CUNA President and CEO Jim Nussle
“Big-box retailers like Walmart, Target, and Kroger will stop at nothing to make a buck and pad their bottom lines — even if it means leaving small businesses and consumers in the dust. There is a reason this ‘Big-Box Bill’ failed the first time around. We believe it will continue to be deeply unpopular among both Republicans and Democrats.”
EPC Executive Director Aaron Stetter
“We strongly oppose the damaging credit card legislation. … This is a regressive bill that takes from consumers, community financial institutions and small businesses and gives to the most profitable global retailers and biggest grocery chains. It’s particularly surprising to see Reps. Lofgren, Van Drew, and Tiffany partnering with Rep. Gooden to champion the top legislative priority of growing grocery conglomerates, rather than standing up for food shoppers. Likewise, it’s hard to understand why Sen. Vance is working with Sens. Durbin, Marshall and Welch to promote the profits of big box department stores and dominant online retailers in their plan to take away Ohioans’ credit card rewards. We’ve seen this movie before: the original Durbin Amendment eliminated debit card rewards, raised banking fees, and increased fraud costs all without lowering costs for consumers. At this time of high prices and security risks, America’s banks are focused on protecting consumers and we will vigorously oppose this misguided legislation.”
“ICBA and the nation’s community banks strongly oppose the introduction of controversial legislation from Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) to create new credit card routing mandates, which would eliminate funding for popular credit cards rewards programs, reduce access to credit, and weaken cybersecurity protections.”
ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey
“The Ohio Bankers League is disappointed that Senator Vance chose to support the Credit Card Competition Act at a time when data breaches are on the rise. In 2022, more than 422 million individuals suffered data breaches. … Ohio banks facilitate a seamless, convenient and safe payment system that allows Ohio consumers to use any method of payment they choose while still being protected from fraud. Protecting customer’s sensitive data is the number one priority for Ohio banks and the [Credit Card Competition Act] introduced today makes it harder to do that. It exposes Ohio consumers to more opportunities for fraud and jeopardizes the systems that are in place to return a consumer’s money should they ever encounter such fraud. … We are asking all OBL members to send a note to Senator Vance expressing our concern for his support of the bill.”
Ohio Bankers League President and CEO Michael Adelman
“The Credit Card Competition Act does not, as its name implies, promote competition. The bill is an expansion of big-government policies from the Dodd-Frank Act that largely regulated debit card rewards programs out of existence in 2010. The bill empowers the Federal Reserve to regulate consumers’ credit card purchases by restricting how payments can be routed over credit card networks and forcing networks to share proprietary payment technology. These legislative provisions will reduce the interchange fee revenue that is used by credit unions and small community banks to fund better consumer data privacy protections and credit card rewards programs through points, cash back, and co-branded airline cards. This will only limit service options and perks that millions of Americans who choose to use electronic forms of payment enjoy every day. Lining woke special interest groups’ pockets should not be favored over the best interests of the consumer.”
Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform
“Supporters of ‘Durbin 2.0’ can try to portray government interference in private-sector transactions as ‘encouraging competition,’ but outside the Beltway, sensible people know better. They understand that in the real world, federal policy that forces new rules on a market to hobble providers of a service can have all kinds of unintended consequences.”
Related:
- Eight trade associations representing the financial services industry, including EPC, released a joint statement opposing the legislation. That statement can be found HERE.
- EPC released a statement last Wednesday following the bill’s reintroduction. That statement can be found HERE.
- A one-pager explaining why the legislation failed when it was first introduced in 2022 can be found HERE.
- Ten trade associations representing the financial services industry sent a joint letter to Congressional leaders opposing credit card routing legislation. That letter can be found HERE.