Furniture World: Merchants Say Credit Card Legislation Would Introduce Long-Awaited Competition While Saving Consumers Billions
The Merchants Payments Coalition welcomed the introduction of bipartisan legislation sponsored by Senators Richard Durbin and Roger Marshall that would let merchants choose which payments networks process credit card transactions, saying the measure would create long-sought competition that could save businesses and consumers billions of dollars a year. “This landmark bill would end a part of the Visa-Mastercard duopoly that has blocked competition for decades,” MPC Executive Committee member and National Association of Convenience Stores General Counsel Doug Kantor said.
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Payments Dive: Durbin to Lob Bill at Visa, Mastercard
Doug Kantor, general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores, testified at the hearing in support of merchant efforts to push back against interchange fees. In a Wednesday interview, he said the coming bill was never envisioned as a vehicle to create a cap on credit fees as the Durbin Amendment did for debit, but he acknowledges the legislation is the product of compromise. Kantor, also an executive member of the Merchants Payments Coalition, said he believes the bill will have “broad bipartisan support” from Congress members, given its reliance on competition to drive fees lower. The MPC on Thursday tweeted this statement: The “bill brings badly needed competition to soaring #creditcard #swipefees.” “It’s very hard, even for the credit card industry, to object to having a basic level of competition, just like every other business has to deal with,” Kantor said of the new legislation.
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Bloomberg: Visa, Mastercard Swipe Fees Targeted in Planned Senate Bill
“For the retailers, it means everything,” said Leon Buck, vice president for government relations for banking and financial services at the National Retail Federation. “It would allow us to negotiate a fairer, lesser, more equitable price.” Take convenience stores, which are known for razor-thin margins. NACS -- a trade group representing the industry -- said swipe fees climbed 26% for the industry in 2021 compared to the year earlier and another 33% in the first quarter alone. “Our estimate is that having basic competition ought to be about $11 billion in savings overall,” said Doug Kantor, general counsel for NACS and an executive committee member for the Merchants Payments Coalition trade group. “You ought to see a vast majority of that going to consumers.”
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American Banker: Senators Prepare Bill to Crack Down on Credit Card Swipe Fees
The Merchants Payments Coalition, a Washington-based organization representing retailers, said credit card interchange rates have been steadily increasing in recent years, despite improvements in digital technology. Credit card swipe fees currently amount to about 2% per credit card transaction, costing merchants about $138 billion last year, the MPC said.
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Wall Street Journal: Senate Bill Takes Aim at Visa, Mastercard Credit Card Fees
The Merchants Payments Coalition, which represents merchant trade groups and lobbied for the bill, says merchants should have the choice to send credit-card payments over networks that set lower fees.
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CNBC: 'Burdensome' Credit Card Swipe Fees Could Add $2.5 Billion to Back-to-School Spending, Merchants Say
This year, total back-to-school spending is expected to match the 2021 record high of $37 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. The so-called swipe fees banks charge merchants to process credit card transactions on those purchases could total $2.5 billion during the peak shopping season, the Merchants Payments Coalition recently said. “These fees have been soaring for years but are particularly burdensome when families are hit with the high inflation that has weakened buying power this year,” said Doug Kantor, general counsel at the National Association of Convenience Stores and an executive committee member at the Merchants Payments Coalition.
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Consumer Electronics Daily: Credit Card Fees Expected to Add $2.5B to BTS Supplies Cost
“Swipe fees are a hidden tax on almost everything Americans buy regardless of whether they pay with cards or cash,” said National Association of Convenience Stores General Counsel Doug Kantor, a member of the MPC executive committee. Such fees have been “soaring for years” but are particularly burdensome during periods of high inflation, Kantor said. Because swipe fees are a percentage of the transaction amount, the fees automatically go up as prices go up, “driving inflation even higher,” Kantor said. “Banks and card networks are raising prices on the backs of American schoolchildren trying to get an education,” Kantor said, urging Congress to “to require competition that would bring these fees under control.” MPC believes banks should set fees independently and should compete to offer the lowest fees
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American Banker: Banks Hit Back at Merchants Over Inflation's Role in Swipe-Fee Debate
“So you have the problem of retailers having to chase their tails,” Doug Kantor, a member of the Merchant Payments Coalition’s executive committee and general counsel of the National Association of Convenience Stores, said in an interview Thursday. “If they raise prices to cover inflation, then they’re hit with higher fees, and then they have to raise their prices again to cover the higher fees,” he said.
NACS Daily: Swipe Fees Add to Inflation for Americans Celebrating July 4
Swipe fees will add hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost of everything from food to fireworks as Americans struggling amid rampant inflation celebrate Independence Day this year, according to the Merchants Payments Coalition, of which NACS is an executive committee member.
Credit Union Times: Forget Rain: Swipe Fees Will Ruin July 4 for 'Patriotic American Families,' Says Group
The Merchants Payments Coalition, which has been outspoken over card swipe fees, said the charges are going to “add hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost of everything from food to fireworks as Americans struggling amid rampant inflation celebrate Independence.”
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