The federal interchange bill, strongly opposed by the MD|DC Credit Union Association and credit union system as a whole, has come back for the second Congress in a row.

Sen. Durbin (D-Ill.) introduced The Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA) of 2023 yesterday, along with Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio). The Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA) of 2023 is substantively identical to the CCCA of 2022. The bill severely limits the free market, creates major security risks, and puts more money in the pockets of retailers by prohibiting credit card issuers from restricting the number of payment card networks on which an electronic credit transaction may be processed. Under this bill, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System must prohibit certain credit card issuers with assets of over $100 billion from restricting the number of networks on which credit card transactions may be processed to:

•     one network, 
•     two or more networks operated by affiliated networks or persons, or 
•     the two networks with the largest market share of credit cards issued. 

Additionally, credit card issuers are prohibited from imposing certain limitations on the routing of electronic credit transactions, such as through penalties for failure to meet a specified threshold of transactions on a particular payment card network. 

“We are seeing the same arguments about consumer savings that were made during the first Durbin Amendment Discussion, which are simply not true. The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond found that after the 2010 Durbin Amendment regulations were implemented, 98.8% of merchants failed to pass-through savings realized from debit regulation to consumers, and over 20% actually increased their prices. Consumer protection and choice should come first, and this bill should not pass,” said John Bratsakis, President and CEO, MD|DC Credit Union Association 

Since this bill was introduced last Congress, the Association, the Leagues, CUNA, and NAFCU have all been in constant contact with members of Congress about this issue. The Association sent letters to the entire Maryland and DC delegations today.

Please click here to reach out to your members of Congress and have your voice heard!