WASHINGTON—NAFCU, CUNA, and several other financial trade organizations have written to the Senate Banking Committee and House Financial Services Committee urging lawmakers against the expansion of the Durbin Amendment to credit cards.
"Support for any legislation on this topic would undermine the overall health and security of the U.S. payments ecosystem and have significant negative implications for consumers and small businesses at a time when the U.S. economy is just starting to recover from a global pandemic," the group stated in its letter. "Not only would this be harmful public policy, but the merchant lobby is choosing to ignore the fundamental differences between debit cards and credit cards, which operate completely differently. For the reasons discussed below, we call on Congress to reject this special interest giveaway."
In the letter, the group argued that merchant groups put consumer spending at risk by interfering with the efficient way credit cards currently work and could negatively impact small businesses, which derive significant value through critical benefits that are supported by credit cards.
The letter follows a separate letter from a coalition of merchant groups that wrote to the committees last month calling for an expansion of the Durbin Amendment to credit.