Native News Online: Credit & Debit Card Swipes Keep More Than $1,110 Worth of Food Out of Reach for Native Families Annually
The Merchants Payments Coalition today welcomed a letter from some of the nation’s largest Native American tribes urging Congress to include the Credit Card Competition Act in the GENIUS Act, aiming to help reduce rising costs for tribal members.
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State Affairs: Cash or credit? State legislatures mull limiting fees tied to card swipes
A Nilson Report study found U.S. businesses paid a combined total of $187.2 billion in interchange fees in 2024, up from $172 billion in 2023 and up 70% since the pandemic. “With no competition to hold them in check, price-fixed swipe fees rise every year and shot up again last year,” said Christine Pollack, vice president of government relations at the Food Industry Association and a member of the Merchants Payments Coalition executive committee, when the report was released in March. “As Main Street small businesses and American families continue to face economic uncertainty, the giant card networks and Wall Street banks continue to take more money out of their pockets every day,” Pollack said. “These fees contribute to inflation and siphon off money that could be used to hold down prices or invest in local communities. Momentum for swipe fee reform is rapidly growing in Congress, and constituents in every district are calling on lawmakers to stand up for Main Street over Wall Street.”
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MPC Hill Blast: Credit Card Giants Like to Pretend
The credit card giants like to pretend that reforming swipe fees will only help large businesses, but that's just a way to hide what they're doing right now.
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Punchbowl News: How retailers learned to love stablecoins
“We’re living the nightmare already,” Doug Kantor said, who serves as a member of the Merchants Payments Coalition. “The idea that there’s a spooky Big Tech monster around the corner does not seem all that scary to us.”
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Merchants Call for Consideration, Passage of the GENIUS Act
MPC encouraged prompt Senate floor consideration, debate and bipartisan passage of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, saying time is of the essence to establish a clear and comprehensive regulatory framework for stablecoin payments. Enactment of the GENIUS Act would be part of an important set of reforms to advance competition in domestic payment innovation, MPC said.
READ MORE +MPC Hill Blast: Native American Businesses Support the Credit Card Competition Act
Native American businesses get unfairly charged huge credit card swipe fees – just like off-reservation businesses. Here are some of their voices.
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Motley Fool: Average Credit Card Processing Fees and Costs in 2025
In 2024, credit card companies in the U.S. earned a record $148.5 billion from processing fees charged to merchants. Families paid an average of close to $1,200 in swipe fees in 2024, according to the Merchants Payments Coalition. The money made from these fees increased at a faster rate than the actual money spent on purchases, adding fuel to the already fierce debate between credit card companies and businesses that complain about so-called swipe fees.
READ MORE +MPC Hill Blast: Small Businesses Are ‘At a Critical Inflection Point’
A recent survey of small businesses found that while 71% have had increased or at least steady sales, 44% have seen profits fall, 91% have had increased operational expenses, 76% have expenses rising faster than sales, and 73% said “government tends to do more to disadvantage small businesses than it does to help small businesses.”
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The Well News: The Road to Innovation and Prosperity
Op-ed by MPC Executive Committee member and National Association of Convenience Stores General Counsel Doug Kantor and PDX Advisors CEO Shane Rodgers says the Credit Card Competition Act, the GENIUS Act and the STABLE Act "would work together to open the current market to competition and lay the regulatory groundwork we need for the new market to take flight."
READ MORE +MPC Hill Blast: Your Favorite Restaurant is in Trouble
The top three restaurant costs are food, labor, and credit card swipe fees. and in the last 4 years food is up 29%, labor 31% and swipe fees 70%.
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