Over 1,800 Merchants Ask Congress to Support Credit Card Competition Act
As Congress heads into its lame duck session, more than 1,800 merchants from across the country called on lawmakers to pass legislation that would bring long-sought competition to credit card “swipe” fees that drive up costs for consumers.
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MPC Calls Banks' Swipe Fee Claims 'Downright Lies'
MPC told Congress a recent letter from banking associations was "filled with half-truths, untruths and downright lies" and presented a marked-up copy to set the record straight.
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Bloomberg Law: Visa, Mastercard Face Emerging Competition in Online Payments
The Fed’s current two-or-more-processors requirement for in-person, card-present transactions was enacted in 2011 through an amendment to the Dodd-Frank Act. That change succeeded in increasing Visa and Mastercard’s competition for processing in-person debit card payments. Smaller processors processed more than 40% of such transactions in 2019, the Fed said. But the two credit card giants continue to dominate the networks that process remote, card-not-present debit transactions, said Doug Kantor, general counsel of the National Association of Convenience Stores. The association is a member of Merchants Payments Coalition, a group of retailers that advocates for greater transparency and competition in the US payments system.
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Credit Union Times: Credit Unions Claim a Win in Interchange Fight
But the issue is not dead. Doug Kantor, general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores and a member of a retail coalition that supported the interchange provisions, said the interchange provisions could be added to the NDAA on the floor. “This is just the beginning of debate over the NDAA and there are many senators who are very concerned about the impact of high swipe fees on veterans who have bravely served their country,” Kantor said. “The swipe fees that the DOD pays to banks and card networks and get passed on to veterans make this issue very germane to the bill.”
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Payments Dive: Durbin Credit Card Amendment Hits Speed Bump
Merchant supporters remain optimistic the bill will advance. “This is just the beginning of debate over the NDAA and there are many senators who are very concerned about the impact of high swipe fees on veterans who have bravely served their country,” National Association of Convenience Stores General Counsel Doug Kantor said in a statement. “We look forward to seeing senators address this issue during floor consideration of the bill.” Kantor is also an executive committee member for the Merchants Payments Coalition.
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The Hill: Retailers Wage Last-Ditch Battle Against Credit Giants Over Swipe Fees
“Small businesses are asking their customers to pay with cash because they can’t afford these high swipe fees,” said Leon Buck, vice president of government relations at the National Retail Federation (and MPC Executive Committee member). “We need freedom to negotiate. That’s what this is about.”
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PYMNTS.com: The Unintended Consequences of Durbin's Proposed Routing Legislation
Competition, through routing mandates, proponents say would drive down the transaction costs for merchants since merchants could opt to send Visa and Mastercard transactions over lower cost rails. In a letter to Congress, the Merchant Payments Coalition (MPC) said the credit card market is “not functioning,” since it is dominated by Visa and Mastercard, with a combined 83% market share. According to the MPC and its members, this purported lack of competition drives up prices for merchants and they say, ultimately consumers and “strangles” innovation. The four-party model that supports the general-purpose credit card market globally is monetized through credit card interchange rates set by the networks and paid by the merchants who accept credit cards issued by banks. MPC says that those fees mean that merchants are forced to pass those higher costs onto consumers.
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Convenience Store News: New Rules Bring Competition to Online Debit Card Transactions
The Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC) also supported the Federal Reserve's approval today of the new rules, which also apply to contactless cards and digital wallets. "This move will bring badly needed competition to our nation's broken payments market," said Doug Kantor, MPC executive committee member and NACS general counsel. "When Congress said merchants had the right to route debit transactions to the processor of their choice, they meant all transactions, not just those in stores. The Fed has followed through on Congress' intent and made it clear that big banks' evasion of competition must stop. Visa, Mastercard and their bank members should not be allowed to shut out other networks that can do the job more efficiently and more securely."
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Politico: Retailers Eye Defense Bill for Key Priorities
Leon Buck, a lobbyist for the National Retail Federation and a top executive for a lobbying group that represents retailers, the Merchants Payments Coalition, on Tuesday said that “these amendments would reveal how much swipe fees are costing our nation’s active duty military and veterans and introduce competition that would bring these fees under control.”
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MarketWatch: Visa 'Stands to Lose the Most' From Fed's New Debit Card Rules, Analyst Says
“This ruling is particularly important given the dramatic shift to e-commerce during the pandemic and the increased use of mobile apps and digital wallets for in-store purchases,” said Doug Kantor, an executive committee member at the Merchants Payments Coalition, in a release. “These transactions account for a rapidly increasing share of our nation’s economy and the Fed has closed a major loophole that allowed them to escape the competition intended by Congress.”
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