WASHINGTON–The nation’s community banks share at least one position in common with credit unions.
The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) has issued a strong statement against the Credit Card Competition Act, which has now been introduced in the House after earlier debuting in the Senate.
“ICBA and the nation’s community banks strongly oppose the introduction of the controversial Credit Card Competition Act by Reps. Peter Welch (D-VT) and Lance Gooden (R-TX), the House companion to ICBA-opposed legislation sponsored by Sens. Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Dick Durbin (D-IL),” said ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey. “Applying routing restrictions to credit card transactions would merely expand the Durbin Amendment’s government-orchestrated transfer of income from low-income households to the nation’s largest retailers, such as Amazon and Walmart. According to Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond data, large retail merchants have pocketed $106 billion in interchange fees funneled to them by the Durbin Amendment—violating their pledge to pass the windfall on to consumers.
Could Be ‘End of Rewards’
“This anti-consumer government intervention would also end popular credit card rewards programs by preventing card companies from funding them, as the Durbin Amendment did to debit card rewards programs,” continued Romero Rainey. “And while the bill’s expanded mandates are designed to apply to banks with over $100 billion in assets, the measure would require all banks—including Main Street community banks—to subsidize the costly and burdensome changes it would impose on the payments system. This not only refutes the sponsors’ claims that their plan would help community banks, it also risks driving small issuers to exit the credit card business altogether—limiting access in local communities.
‘Threat to Security’
“Further, expanding the Durbin Amendment would hand over the security of the nation’s credit card system to merchants—which are not required to meet the same rigorous data security standards, fair lending, and privacy laws that apply to highly regulated community banks.
“We call on every member of the House and Senate to join us in opposing this anti-consumer legislation.”
The Very Best in CU Reporting. For You. For Free. Or Your Money Back.
Don’t forget to check your Spam/Junk email folder if you haven’t been receiving your free, popular and daily CUToday.info news headlines.
And if you haven’t yet signed up for the new email solution on which CUToday.info has partnered with ResponseGenius, you can do so here. Signing up requires less than one minute of your time.
CUToday.info has received very positive response from readers following the move to an improved provider of the daily headlines, but many also noted they did need to go to their Spam/Junk folder and mark it as safe.
The new email solution has not only improved every reader’s delivery experience, but it also features a fresh, new format that is easy to read, especially on mobile devices.
Please note and/or make your IT department or email administrator aware the emails will be coming from the domains CUTodayinfo.com and CUTodayinfoReply.com.