“If enacted, these mandates would deliver a quarter-trillion-dollar hit to our economy and cost nearly 160,000 American jobs. This is a transparent attempt to reward the largest corporate mega-stores at the expense of everyone else.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Electronic Payments Coalition Executive Chairman Richard Hunt issued the following statement after Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Roger Marshall (R-KS) filed a new version of their flawed credit card mandates as an amendment to crypto market structure legislation:
“Senators Durbin and Marshall are at it again.
“The harm caused by these mandates is undeniable and well documented by the Congressional Research Service, independent academics, and respected economists. Senator Durbin ran this same playbook more than a decade ago with debit cards and the results were devastating: consumers lost free checking; community financial institutions were stripped of the resources they use to serve Main Street; and corporate mega-stores broke their promises to lower prices and pocketed the money.
“If enacted, these mandates would deliver a quarter-trillion-dollar hit to our economy and cost nearly 160,000 American jobs. This is a transparent attempt to reward the largest corporate mega-stores at the expense of everyone else.
“Just a week after introducing their failed credit card mandates with fewer cosponsors than last Congress, their desperation is on full display. To gain support, just days before a markup, they changed their bill to add a political sweetener in an attempt to gain support from far-left allies like Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Rohit Chopra by empowering activist state attorneys general to sue American companies.”
NOTE: These mandates are being pushed by the largest corporate mega-stores, who Sens. Durbin and Marshall count among their largest campaign contributors, and would allow them to process Americans’ credit cards on alternative networks, which may be cheaper for retailers but take away the benefits cardholders currently receive from the secure global networks their credit cards operate on today.
A report from the Congressional Research Service found it unlikely small businesses would benefit while card security would be harmed. The Federal Reserve of Richmond found when similar mandates were imposed on debit cards, merchants either kept prices the same or raised them while debit card fraud increased, and community banks lost revenue used to offer consumer benefits like free checking.
Community banks and credit unions in all 50 states have come out against these harmful mandates and Airbus, Boeing, Embraer, RTX Corporation, and General Electric Aerospace joined leading airlines and labor unions and groups in opposition, including the Allied Pilots Association, Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, Association of Professional Flight Attendants, Communications Workers of America, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Regional Airline Association, Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, and Transportation Workers Union of America.
Additional research on the harm the Durbin-Marshall mandates would cause is available here.