In The News
March 16, 2021
The Merchants Payments Coalition welcomed Visa and Mastercard’s announcement that nearly $1.2 billion in credit card swipe fee increases will be postponed for a year, but said existing fees are already too high and need to be addressed by Congress.
March 16, 2021
Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. are postponing plans to boost the fees U.S. merchants pay when consumers use credit cards online, pushing back the changes another year to April 2022 because of the pandemic.
March 16, 2021
The major card networks have postponed a planned interchange fee hike yet again in light of the reality of an ongoing pandemic, pleas from merchant groups and pressure from Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. But while this one-year delay provides immediate relief, it doesn’t address the long-term concerns critics have raised over how much power the […]
March 16, 2021
Durbin and Rep. Peter Welch, D-VT, sent a letter to the companies this month urging them not to increase fees. The merchants’ trade group Merchants Payments Coalition has also been pressing the credit card companies to hold off on a hike that would cause retailers and merchants to pass increases to consumers.
March 11, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact: J. Craig Shearman(202) 257-3678 craig@shearmancommunications.com WASHINGTON, March 11, 2021 – The Merchants Payments Coalition welcomed attention brought to rising credit card processing fees by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., during an antitrust hearing today. Durbin, who authored legislation that brought transparency, competition and predictability to debit card fees in […]
March 04, 2021
The grocery industry has described itself as “extremely pleased” by a letter sent by federal lawmakers encouraging major credit card companies to cancel planned increases in interchange fees, also known as “swipe fees,” which food retailers maintain would be detrimental to businesses and consumers still struggling during the pandemic.
March 03, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact: J. Craig Shearman(202) 257-3678 craig@shearmancommunications.com WASHINGTON, March 3, 2021 – The Merchants Payments Coalition welcomed a letter sent today by Senator Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., and Representative Peter Welch, D-Vt., calling on Visa and Mastercard to cancel a nearly $1.2 billion increase in credit card processing fees scheduled to take effect in […]
March 03, 2021
Last year the major card networks decided, amid the pandemic, to hold off on adjusting interchange fees until April of 2021. This would be the most substantial change to the interchange rate structure in a decade, and the card networks have not signaled plans to delay it further.