Capitol Account: Banks Notch Wins in Illinois Swipe Fee Fight, as OCC Draws New Criticism
The Merchants Payments Coalition, which represents retailers, made a similar case, pointing out that the OCC’s regulation is supposed to ensure that bank fees are subject to market competition. The rule would allow a way around that, the association argued, by letting banks rely on other companies. “This is a fundamental reversal of the OCC’s longstanding recognition,” the coalition contended. “By eliminating the expectation of independent competitive pricing, the rule risks encouraging industry-wide fee standardization at the expense of consumers and merchants.”
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Westlaw Today: Merchants ask OCC to reverse swipe fee preemption
The Merchants Payments Coalition urged the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Friday to withdraw its recent move to nullify state-level swipe fee bans.
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News Anyway: The Credit Card Swipe Fee War , Main Street Retailers Take on Visa and Mastercard
The Merchants Payments Coalition has persisted in advocating for legislative action, especially with regard to routing changes akin to those implemented for debit card transactions following the 2010 Dodd-Frank reforms.
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WCPT-AM/Heartland Signal: Big banks and Illinois retailers clash over landmark credit card swipe fee law
The Merchants Payments Coalition, a group of retailers and businesses that supports the IFPA, released a report in March saying swipe fees reached a record-high $198.25 billion in 2025. “Credit card swipe fees make just about everything Americans buy more expensive,” MPC Executive Committee member and National Association of Convenience Stores General Counsel Doug Kantor said. “Swipe fees set a new record by taking more of our money every year and the impact on American families and small businesses is devastating. President Trump, lawmakers across the political spectrum, business groups, labor unions, consumer groups, Native American tribes and more are calling for bipartisan swipe fee reform. It’s time for Congress to make America affordable again by ending the swipe fee ripoff.”
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Blusher: Banks Are Collecting Millions Daily in Swipe Fees as Gas Prices Climb, Report Says
As gasoline and diesel prices climb, banks are collecting significantly more in credit card “swipe” fees, with estimates reaching as high as $58 million per day. Data highlighted by the Merchants Payments Coalition shows that because these fees are calculated as a percentage of each transaction, higher fuel prices directly translate into larger revenues for card issuers.
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Convenience Store News: Retailer Group Opposes Increase in Debit Card Swipe Fees
The Merchants Payments Coalition and member trade associations urged the Senate Banking Committee to reject a proposal that would allow dozens of large banks to increase the fees they charge merchants to process debit card transactions, saying the move would lead to higher prices for consumers.
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Progressive Grocer: Colorado Legislation to Regulate Swipe Fees for Card Networks
ccording to research cited by the Merchants Payment Coalition, swipe fees have jumped around 80% since the pandemic, with Visa and Mastercard setting prices over their 80% share of the market. With the passage of the Swipe Fee Fairness and Consumer Safeguards Act, Colorado hopes to up the competition by enabling banks with $100 billion in assets to issue cards from other unaffiliated networks. “This is landmark legislation that will save Colorado small businesses and their customers millions of dollars each year and keep that money in the local economy rather than sending off to out-of-state megabanks and global card networks,” commented MPC’s Doug Kantor.
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Capitol Account: OCC Lands in the Center of the Swipe Fee Wars
“The OCC has a long history of being wrong on national bank preemption,” says Doug Kantor, (MPC Executive Committee member and) general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores, which backs the interchange limits. In fact, he pointed out that Congress in the Dodd-Frank Act enacted several provisions designed to rein in the agency. "There seems to be an institutional problem at the OCC where they act more like an advocate for the banking industry than like the regulator,” Kantor opines.
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Capitol Forum: White House and Senate Headed Towards Swipe Fee Showdown
"If we don't have clarity from the 7th Circuit and July 1st hits, then there's a question for the enforcement authorities in Illinois. Do they take action? Obviously, whoever they take action against would challenge it," said Doug Kantor, vice president and general counsel of the National Association of Convenience Stores (and MPC Executive Committee member). "Hopefully, the 7th Circuit will give everybody clarity. That would be great."
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Law360: OCC Rules Spur 7th Circ. Remand In Ill. Swipe-Fee Fight
A top official with the Merchants Payments Coalition said his organization is "pleased" Judge Kendall will now “have another chance to tell the OCC they are wrong.” "The OCC's approach of writing a regulation to overturn this law is just a desperate move to try to avoid the courts deciding this issue and it's not going to work," Doug Kantor, the coalition's executive committee member, said. "They have gone to extreme lengths to try to avoid having the court decide this in the normal course of business. Unfortunately, the OCC sees itself as an advocate for the banks rather than a regulator charged with protecting consumers, and that's a problem."
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