CU, financial trades lobby against Durbin-Marshall credit card bill

With members of Congress back home, financial trade groups—including CUNA and NAFCU—are mobilizing credit unions and banks to tell lawmakers to oppose Senate legislation designed to expand the credit card processing industry.

S.4674 would require the Federal Reserve to issue rules that would ensure banks that currently use the four-party card processing system be required to use at least one affiliated network in addition to Visa and Mastercard.

“This would inject real competition into the credit card market—opening the door for new market entrants such as current debit-only networks, encouraging innovation and enhanced security, creating backup options if a network crashes, and exerting competitive constraints on Visa and Mastercard’s fee rates,” bill sponsors, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and Roger Marshall, R-Kan., said when they introduced the legislation last month.

Opposition From Credit Union Groups

While it is questionable whether the House and Senate would consider such controversial legislation as the mid-term elections approach, the financial services industry is not taking any chances.

 

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