Convenience Store News: U.S. Senator Talks Swipe Fees with Casey's Leadership Team
Marshall was joined by Tom Brennan, chief merchandising officer of Casey's; Doug Beech, senior assistant general counsel and director of government relations for Casey's; and Doug Kantor, NACS general counsel (and MPC Executive Committee member).
READ MORE +
Great Bend Tribune: Marshall Discusses Price Gouging Credit Card Swipe Fees
“All of Main Street appreciates the incredible support that Senator Roger Marshall provides every day,” Doug Kantor, General Counsel of the National Association of Convenience Stores (and MPC Executive Committee member), said. “Senator Marshall’s Credit Card Competition Act is the most significant piece of legislation under consideration today to help small businesses across the nation. Credit card swipe fees multiply the effects of inflation and hit small businesses the hardest. It’s time for Congress to follow Senator Marshall’s lead and choose their constituents over Wall Street bankers.”
READ MORE +
Digital Transactions: Some Merchants Take Issue with the CCCA
Claims that only large businesses with high credit card volume would benefit from the CCCA are false, counters Doug Kantor, an executive committee member for the Merchant Payments Coalition and general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores. To support his claim, Kantor points to a recent survey by the National Federation of Independent Business, which represents small as well as large businesses, in which 94% of respondents say they prefer to have a network choice when it comes to routing card transactions. “Sure, 6% have doubts, but there will always be a group that disagrees, you won’t get 100% of merchants in agreement on this,” Kantor says. “[Network] competition will lower card prices and we have seen it in other countries, even in countries where American Express has a presence.” Kantor adds that small businesses pay more in card acceptance fees than their larger counterparts do now and that CCCA can reduce card acceptance costs for small businesses. “Small businesses pay double what larger businesses do when it comes to card acceptance,” Kantor says. Kantor also argues that the SBPA is merely a mouthpiece for the EPC, which represents card issuers and has been vocal in its opposition to the CCCA. “The SBPA is a sham organization put together and supported by the card industry.”
READ MORE +
Digital Transactions: A New Merchant Groups Voices Opposition to a Bill Aimed at Credit Card Acceptance Costs
“Small businesses are hit the hardest by swipe fees because they pay the highest rates and have the fewest resources to do anything about it. We hear from them every day, they have come to repeated merchant fly-ins in Washington and have held countless meetings with lawmakers in their home states,” Doug Kantor, an executive committee member at the Merchants Payments Coalition and general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores, says by email. The MPC has lobbied hard for the CCCA. “Hundreds [of merchants] have signed letters to Congress calling for action, and their concerns have been voiced in scores of op-eds and letters to the editor across the country,” Kantor notes. “The new alliance is clearly a front for the card industry and is not the voice of American small businesses.”
READ MORE +
Rising Visa/Mastercard Fraud Rate Shows Need for Credit Card Competition Act to Protect Consumers
An increase in fraud rates on Visa and Mastercard’s networks shows the need to pass the Credit Card Competition Act to provide merchants with more secure options for routing consumer transactions, MPC said.
READ MORE +
MarketWatch: Could Congress Really 'Kill' Credit Card Rewards?
Supporters of the Credit Card Competition Act also argue that, even with cheaper payment networks, financial institutions will still use rewards to market to and compete for customers. “Rewards are determined by the bank that issues a card, not the network that processes the transaction,” said (MPC Executive Committee member) Stephanie Martz, chief administrative officer and general counsel for the National Retail Federation. She called airlines’ criticism of the bill “a scare tactic to mislead Congress.” “The amount of revenue banks would lose is a small fraction of total swipe fee collections, far from enough to put an end to rewards,” she said.
READ MORE +
Motley Fool: 'Reduce Excessive Credit Card Fees' -- Why Visa and Mastercard Investors Should Keep an Eye on Congress
(MPC Executive Committee member) Doug Kantor, chief counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores, says the legislation could reduce swipe fees by $11 billion annually. Christine Pollack, vice president of government relations at the Food Industry Association (an also an MPC Executive Committee member), says hidden processing fees cost the average U.S. family $900 annually.
READ MORE +
Payments Journal: Is the Credit Card Competition Act Really Going to Destroy Rewards Programs?
The Merchants Payments Coalition counters that the legislation could lead to lower consumer prices without affecting credit card rewards programs. The group points out that the legislation projects to save $15 billion in swipe fees, which amounts to less than 10 percent of banks’ revenues from the fees.
READ MORE +
Furniture Today: Merchant Group Continues Urging Credit Card Competition Act
The Merchants Payments Coalition told Congress today that only this legislative proposal that would bar China’s credit card network, China UnionPay, from the U.S. payments market. “The two dominant payment networks in the United States – Visa and Mastercard – have welcomed China UnionPay into standard-setting for U.S. payments,” MPC said in a letter to all members of the House and Senate. “This is dangerous and wrong.”
READ MORE +
Politico Influence: Playing the China Card
In a letter to Scott and Senate Banking Chair Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) this morning, the Merchants Payments Coalition sought to link Visa and Mastercard with the company, noting they allowed UnionPay to join the security standards group EMVCo a decade ago. “Today, there is no law preventing Visa, Mastercard or any of the banks for which Visa and Mastercard set credit card prices and rules from working with China UnionPay,” the coalition wrote. “There is, however, one piece of legislation that would create a legal restriction prohibiting China UnionPay from being enabled on any U.S. credit card — the Credit Card Competition Act.”
READ MORE +