Article, campaign spotlight harmful impact of Durbin Amendment expansion

ICBA-opposed legislation to create new credit card routing mandates that expand on Durbin Amendment payments interventions would dramatically affect credit card rewards programs, according to a new report from The Points Guy.

Consumer Impact: The report says the Durbin Amendment wiped out debit card rewards while transferring wealth from low-income households to large retailers that was not passed on to consumers. It also says the ICBA-opposed Credit Card Competition Act of 2022 (S. 4674) would similarly end credit card rewards programs by preventing card companies from funding them.

Consumer Campaign: Separately, the Electronic Payments Coalition—of which ICBA is a member—launched a “Hand Off My Rewards” campaign encouraging consumers to weigh in against the legislation.

Background: Introduced by Sens. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the ICBA-opposed S. 4674 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.

ICBA Grassroots: ICBA continues encouraging community bankers to use ICBA’s Be Heard grassroots action center to oppose the legislation.

More: In a recent letter to the Senate and Main Street Matters post, ICBA said the bill would require an overhaul of the payments landscape at a significant cost to consumers. Contact Congress here.