The Credit Card Competition Act, which is strongly opposed by credit unions, has not been included in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 (NDAA) after being advanced by the Senate.
The legislation, sponsored by Sens. Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Roger Marshall (R-KS), has been hotly contested on Capitol Hill, with the nation’s retailers supporting the bill just as strongly as credit unions have opposed it.
The Senate moved the legislation after returning to Washington just to focus on the bill, which authorizes approximately $847 billion for military and national security programs.
CUNA, state leagues, NAFCU, the Defense Credit Union Council (DCUC), and representatives of other groups have spent the last several weeks advocating against the Credit Card Competition Act, which would require that credit cards issued by the nation’s largest banks be able to be processed over at least two unaffiliated networks – Visa or Mastercard plus a competing card network or one of several independent networks like Star, NYCE or Shazam. Merchants would then be allowed to choose which of the two networks to use, prompting networks to compete over fees, security, and service.
The bill remains before Congress, it just isn’t part of the much larger NDAA.
“I want to express the Association’s deep appreciation for the determined and diligent efforts of our member credit unions for their work in keeping the harmful Credit Card Competition Act and the interchange issue out of the Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute offered to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)” said League President and CEO J. Scott Sullivan. “This is a massive win for credit unions, but we need to continue the fight to make sure Nebraska lawmakers fully comprehend the damage this bill would have on the financial services industry. The League vows to keep fighting this issue on behalf of member credit unions and consumers.”
