Durbin schedules interchange hearing, accuses Visa, Mastercard of misleading consumers

Accusing Visa and Mastercard of using false and misleading advertising to oppose his credit card interchange legislation, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., has asked the company CEOs to appear at an April 9 hearing on the bill.

“Visa and Mastercard have aggressively opposed efforts to bring competition to the credit card market in order to protect the dominant market position they share,” Durbin said, in announcing the hearing. “Visa, Mastercard, and its allies have spent millions of dollars opposing my Credit Card Competition Act, including through false and misleading advertising claiming the bill would ‘ban’ credit card rewards programs.”

Durbin noted he had asked the CEOs of the two companies, as well as the CEOs of American Airlines and United Airlines to testify at the hearing. Each company offered other witnesses and not their CEOs. Durbin then sent letters this week formally asking the CEOs to testify, saying that it is “critical” that the committee and the public hear directly from them.

Durbin’s bill, S.1838, would require the federal reserve to issue rules that guaranteed that large credit unions and banks currently using the four-party card processing system be required to use at least one unaffiliated network in addition to VISA and Mastercard.

 

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