Merchants Call on Fed to Swiftly Finalize Proposal to Protect Debit Card Routing Rights
A Federal Reserve proposal making it clear that merchants can choose which payment networks process their online debit card transactions is needed because major banks and networks continue to interfere with competition for debit business a decade after legislation was passed by Congress to fix the problem, the Merchants Payments Coalition said today.
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MPC's Comments on Clarification of the Fed's Regulation II
The Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC) is grateful for the opportunity to provide comment on the Board’s proposed clarification of Regulation II. The language of Regulation II is clear that two unaffiliated networks must be available for all debit transactions, yet for too many years many of the largest issuers have failed to meet that requirement.
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Debit Rule Battle Dumps 500-Plus Comments on Fed
The Federal Reserve Board is now awash with 560 comments from payments market participants espousing the pros and cons of a seemingly simple rule clarification proposal on the processing of debit card transactions.
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Letter: Bring Competition to Credit Card Swipe Fees
The reason is that credit card networks and the big banks charge merchants a “swipe” fee averaging about 2 percent of the purchase amount every time a credit card is used, whether it’s swiped, inserted or used via a digital wallet. Those fees add up quickly, totaling almost $100 billion a year. They are among most merchants’ highest cost and drive up prices by hundreds of dollars a year for the average family.
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Letter: Congress Should Act on 'Swipe' Fees
Most consumers don’t know it, but the average family pays hundreds of dollars a year because of hidden “swipe” fees banks charge merchants to process credit card transactions.
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Grocers Need Competition on Credit Card Fees
Rather than competing like other vendors, virtually all banks that issue Visa and Mastercard cards follow fee schedules set by the two networks and refuse to negotiate.
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Congress Should Better Control Swipe Fees
As a merchant who sees my pocket picked every day by Visa, Mastercard and the big banks, I strongly believe it’s time for Congress and the nation’s banking regulators to do something about the growing problem of “swipe” fees.
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Big Banks Should Not Be Priming the Pump to Gouge Consumers and Main Street as Card Volume Rises
The Merchants Payments Coalition today decried outrageous swipe fees pocketed by big banks, which have reported dramatic increases in credit and debit card volume this week as Main Street still struggles to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Trade Group Seeks Biden Antitrust Focus on Payments
The Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC) called on the Biden administration to include the payments industry in its federal crack down on antitrust concerns in American business.
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Colorado scraps ban on credit card surcharges
Colorado passed a new law this week jettisoning its ban on credit card surcharges, leaving only two states with such prohibitions as a nationwide legal campaign against the ban gains ground.
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