With Sens. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) working to include their ICBA-opposed credit card legislation in a must-pass defense bill, ICBA is urging community bankers to continue the grassroots campaign against the interchange measure.
New Amendments: Durbin and Marshall filed an amendment to include the Credit Card Competition Act of 2022 (S. 4674) in the National Defense Authorization Act, which lawmakers are considering ahead of a vote after the midterm elections. A separate amendment—which is designed to ensure addressing interchange fees is germane to the defense bill—directs the Defense and Treasury departments to conduct a study on credit and debit interchange fees charged at military facilities.
Grassroots Action: Community bankers can use ICBA’s Be Heard grassroots action center and share its social media call to action on the bill, which would require banks with over $100 billion in assets to offer merchants at least two networks to process credit cards, at least one of which cannot be owned by Visa or Mastercard.
Consumer Campaign: Separately, the Electronic Payments Coalition—of which ICBA is a member—offers a “Hands Off My Rewards” campaign with resources encouraging consumers to weigh in against the legislation.
ICBA Opposition: As ICBA has said in a national news release, letters to the House and Senate, and a Main Street Matters blog post, the bill would force a costly overhaul of payments systems, restrict access to credit card services, end popular rewards programs, and put merchants in charge of credit card security—solely to benefit large retailers like Amazon and Walmart. Contact Congress.
