ICBA, groups voice opposition to Durbin-Marshall bill

ICBA and other groups expressed strong opposition to recently reintroduced legislation to create new credit card routing mandates.

Background: Reintroduced by Sens. Roger Marshal (R-Kan.) and Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), the ICBA-opposed Credit Card Competition Act (S. 3623; H.R. 7035) would require certain financial institutions to offer merchants at least two networks to process credit cards, at least one of which cannot be owned by Visa or Mastercard—allowing merchants to process credit card transactions based solely on which network offers them the lowest cost.

New Joint Letter: In a letter to Congress and joint press release, ICBA and the other groups urged Congress to reject the CCCA legislation in any form, saying the misguided mandates would harm consumers, small businesses, and community financial institutions while delivering a windfall to corporate megastores.

Recent ICBA Update: In a message to community bankers earlier this week, ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey laid out ICBA’s efforts to ensure policymakers understand the negative consumer impact of the Durbin-Marshall bill and a separate ICBA-opposed proposal to impose a 10% cap on credit card interest rates.