The Durbin-Marshall Credit Card Mandates are proposed federal legislation requiring banks to enable multiple routing options for credit card transactions. This means if Congress passed this law, it would bring chaos to our credit card system by changing the way your credit card works. 

This monumental change would allow corporate megastores to route your transactions over cheaper, less secure, and potentially foreign networks, exposing consumer data to greater risks, dismantling fraud protections, restricting access to credit, and gutting rewards programs.

The Durbin-Marshall Credit Card Mandates, cleverly named by Sens. Durbin and Marshall as the “Credit Card Competition Act” does anything but facilitate competition, proven by numerous independent research and government analyses which debunk the promises of "lower costs" and "increased competition.” The research has also revealed the true impact of credit card mandates: 

• Increased threats of fraud and data exposure.
• Elimination of rewards programs like cash back and travel points.
• Increased costs for consumers.
• Reduced access to credit, especially for underserved communities.
• Higher operating and training expenses for small businesses.

Who Supports It and Why? 

Corporate megastores like Walmart, Home Depot, Target, and Kroger (coincidentally some of Sen. Durbin’s largest political donors) are driving this legislation under a misleading narrative centered on “helping small businesses” and “improving competition,” ignoring the facts, historical evidence, and free market principles.  

The reality is corporate megastores are pushing these mandates to:

• Cut their own costs.
• Shift operational expenses onto consumers.
• Maximize corporate profits.
• Reduce competition.

The Durbin-Marshall Credit Card Mandates aim to hand billions in profits to corporate megastores by allowing them to take advantage of accepting your payments on cheaper, less secure networks. 

The Bottom Line

Corporate megastores are pushing for a political takeover of the nation’s secure credit card system, aiming to manipulate government rules to pad their profits. No matter what they say, the truth is: prices won't go down, small businesses won’t save money and consumers will face higher costs, greater risks, fewer rewards, and less access to credit.