Reps. Welch and Gooden introduce House version of NAFCU-opposed Credit Card Competition Act
On Monday, Representatives Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Lance Gooden, R-Texas, introduced the House companion to the Credit Card Competition Act of 2022 (CCCA), which was introduced in late July by Senators Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Roger Marshall, R-Kansas.
In another attempt to expand the Durbin Amendment, which was enacted in 2010 as part of the Dodd-Frank Act, the NAFCU-opposed bill aims to expand interchange price controls by creating a new credit card routing mandate. This mandate would be a direct detriment to credit unions and their members by placing consumers at high risk during credit card transactions.
“The House version of the Credit Card Competition Act will fail consumers at a time when financial well-being is of the utmost importance,” stated NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger, who also called the anti-consumer bill that gives retail giants full control over the payments network a “bad idea, plain and simple.”
NAFCU last week held its 2022 Congressional Caucus where credit unions were able to share with lawmakers the harms a bill of this scope would have on their institutions, and the members they serve. The CCCA only benefits big box retailers and would turn the payments system on its head. In addition, it would take away credit unions’ ability to provide low-cost, and sometimes free, financial products and services. NAFCU Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Greg Mesack also set the record straight by co-hosting an hour-long briefing on interchange, sharing the harmful effects of this legislation with more than 50 Congressional and Federal Reserve staff members.
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