WASHINGTON– The Merchants Payments Coalition said it has been assured by Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) that the Senate plans to vote on the Credit Card Competition Act.
No timetable was given for movement on the legislation, which is strongly opposed by credit unions and banks.
‘Given Assurances’
“Today, we were given assurances that the Credit Card Competition Act will be given a vote this Congress,” Marshall was quoted as saying by the MPC. “Swipe fees, the Visa-Mastercard duopoly and the Wall Street banks that back them are price-gouging American families nationwide at a rate seven times higher than the EU. That will soon end.”
As CUToday.info has reported, the Credit Card Competition Act, which was first introduced in the prior Congress, has been reintroduced with support from Marshal, along with Sens. Richard Durbin (D-IL), Peter Welch (D-VT) and J.D. Vance (R-OH), and in the House by Reps. Lance Gooden (R-TX), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Thomas Tiffany (R-WI) and Jefferson Van Drew (R-NJ).
The legislation 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 would apply to financial institutions of more than $100 billion in assets; currently, just one credit union, Navy Federal, is above that threshold.
Strong Complaints
Retailers have been complaining strongly about credit card swipe fees, which average 2.24% of the transaction but can range as high as 4%, the MPC said.
“Swipe fees have more than doubled over the past decade and rose $22 billion last year to a record $160.7 billion when debit cards are included,” the merchants group added. “They are most merchants’ highest operating cost average labor, driving up prices by an estimated $1,024 a year for the average family.”
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