Big-Bank Profits Rising as Merchants And Consumers Seek Relief from Credit Card ‘Swipe’ Fees
Rapidly rising profits at four of the nation’s largest banks show the need for Congress to address the growing credit card “swipe” fees banks charge merchants to process transactions, MPC said.
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Gifts and Decorative Accessories: Big Bank Profits ‘Rapidly Rising’ While Small Businesses Suffer the Swipe-Fee Consequences
“Whether it’s annual fees charged directly to consumers or processing fees charged to merchants that drive up prices consumers pay, banks are taking more out of our pockets every day,” MPC Executive Committee member and National Retail Federation Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel Stephanie Martz said. “Some Wall Street banks have profit margins 10 times as large as those seen by retailers, and they make those profits on the backs of small businesses struggling to keep their doors open. Congress needs to stand up for Main Street by bringing competition to our nation’s broken payments system.”
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CNN: Credit card rewards benefit the rich the most. Here’s who actually pays for them
“Credit card companies (are) working to serve the most affluent customers more and more,” said Doug Kantor, general counsel at the trade group National Association of Convenience Stores (and MPC Executive Committee member). These companies “try to get (high earners) more rewards at everyone else’s expense by pushing those costs on to everyone.”
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Punchbowl News: Credit card lobby gets spooky on swipe fees
We should note that the banks aren’t the first to dive into the Halloween milieu for this issue. The Merchants Payments Coalition warned that swipe fees would cost U.S. families “over $300 million” on Halloween-related expenses last month. (“A nightmare on every street,” they said.)
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MPC Hill Blast: The ABCs of Big Bank Logic Are … Anything But Competition
Once again, big banks have shown they will go to any length to avoid competition. It’s not enough that they want to keep cartel-style price-fixing on credit card swipe fees without any competition. Now they want to prohibit consumers from getting any kind of rewards or interest from alternatives like stablecoins — just to avoid competition.
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RV Travel: Is it right we have to pay a banker every time we visit a popular national park?
The Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC) cited findings from payment consultants CMSPI that showed in 2023 that the swipe fee rate for Visa and Mastercard credit cards averaged 2.91% of the transaction amount (we at RVtravel.com pay a little more than that).
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CNBC: How stablecoins could change the way Americans shop in stores
“There’s tremendous potential in stablecoins. It should disrupt, to some extent, the traditional payment space we have today with credit and debit cards,” said Doug Kantor, general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores (and MPC Executive Committee member). “It has the promise of faster, cheaper, more efficient and frankly, more convenient transactions for consumers and businesses.”
READ MORE +MPC Hill Blast -- ‘It Kind of Boggles My Mind’
‘It kind of boggles my mind.’ That was the reaction of someone who knows what he is talking about — Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong — to huge swipe fees that cannot be justified in this interview with Fox Business.
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Congressional Hearings Examining Credit Card Swipe Fees
Congress has held 18 hearings examining credit card swipe fees since 2006.
READ MORE +MPC Hill Blast: $795 for Me … And No Soup for You!
American consumers can be excused for feeling like George in a classic Seinfeld clip. They keep getting squeezed by higher fees that seemingly come out of nowhere — like the $795 annual fee JP Morgan Chase is now charging cardholders. And that is just part of a parade of higher annual fees and interest rates from credit card companies.
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