ICBA urges market structure grassroots, pushes back on credit card proposals

ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey urged community bankers to continue contacting their members of Congress on digital assets legislation and laid out ICBA’s opposition to misguided credit card proposals.

Critical Markup Tomorrow: In a message to community bankers ahead of a key Senate Banking Committee markup set for tomorrow, ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey urged community bankers to use ICBA’s Be Heard grassroots action center to urge lawmakers to ensure digital assets legislation bars all market participants from offering yield, interest, or rewards on payment stablecoins.

Community Bank Impact: An ICBA analysis of industry research released last month found that allowing crypto intermediaries to pay interest or yield on payment stablecoin holdings could reduce community bank lending by $850 billion due to a $1.3 trillion reduction in deposits—significantly diminishing access to credit in local communities.

Latest Credit Card Proposals: Romero Rainey also noted that ICBA and other groups are responding to social media posts from President Donald Trump expressing support for imposing a 10% cap on credit card interest rates and urging Congress to pass legislation to establish new credit card routing mandates.

Industry Response: In response, ICBA and other groups issued joint news releases clarifying how the rate cap proposal would hamper access to credit for lower-income Americans and how the credit card routing measure would only make life less affordable for Americans, which is why Congress has repeatedly rejected it and should continue to do so.

Grassroots Advocacy Push: With the Senate Banking Committee continuing to negotiate the digital assets market structure bill ahead of tomorrow’s markup, ICBA continues calling on community bankers to contact their lawmakers to ensure their voices are heard in Washington.

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