Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) introduced S. 4674, the Credit Card Competition Act. The bill aims to apply the two-network and merchant routing choice requirements to credit card transactions that now apply to debit card transactions. The bill would utilize routing restrictions to garner the same effects of interchange fee caps. This would allow merchants to bypass established secure payment networks. If merchants can simply choose the cheapest networks that haven’t invested in the latest security technology for the sake of boosting their bottom line it will be credit union members that pay the price with their payment data vulnerable to bad actors and credit unions paying the costs of fraud. As was seen with Durbin’s debit card law, consumers did not benefit as promised by merchants who said they would return the savings to customers.
Recently, the League and credit union advocates from each of Nebraska’s Congressional Districts met with our Congressmen and Senators. Advocates reminded them that the interchange fees paid by merchants is not only just a cost of doing business but importantly it goes towards offsetting the costs of fraud prevention, fraud costs, improving the electronic payments system, and much more. It’s important that each of us contact our Congressman and two U.S. Senators to tell them to protect card payments and oppose S. 4674, the Credit Card Competition Act because it puts at risk credit card programs for consumers. You can do just that by clicking on the link below. Thank you!
