ACTION ALERT ISSUED

​Credit Card Competition Act is now introduced in Congress – we need your help to send concerns directly to your local lawmakers. 

Yesterday, the Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA) of 2023 was introduced and it will have serious consequences for credit unions and their members if passed. We strongly oppose this legislation and need your help telling Congress how changes to interchange would negatively impact your credit union and members.

                 Send a message through the Grassroots Action Center Today!

Click on the above link to quickly and easily create and send an action alert with your concerns directly to your local lawmaker.

Your members, and consumers across the country rely on credit cards to make life happen, from paying for groceries and school supplies to covering emergency car repairs or medical expenses. Accepted nearly everywhere, credit cards offer robust security, fraud protection, and access to credit that may not otherwise be available. Interchange fees, which are only a fraction of a cent per dollar transacted, make this possible. Interchange keeps consumers, merchants, and financial institutions safe.

Briefly - this bill seeks to amend the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA) requiring covered card issuers to include at least 2 unaffiliated networks on which an electronic credit transaction can be processed. Additionally, the 2 networks cannot be the networks holding the two largest market shares of credit cards issued in the U.S. by licensed members of such networks.

While the bill defines a “covered card issuers” as having more than $100 billion in assets, credit unions have all sizes need to be concerned as a result of the indirect consequences. While merchants and retail groups maintain this legislation will lower prices for consumers, the reality, as demonstrated by the results of the passage of the Durbin Amendment in 2010, is that this is simply not true. The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond found that after the Durbin Amendment regulations were implemented, 98.8% of merchants failed to pass-through savings realized from debit regulation to consumers, and over 20% actually increased their prices. Big box retailers support this bill because it requires banks and credit unions to route credit card transactions to the cheapest network without regard for consumer choice or the security and privacy of consumers’ data.

The interchange fee covers the cost of fraud detection, credit monitoring, and fraudulent purchase protection that make consumers and merchants whole when bad actors attack.

Find more information about this important issue on the Interchange Works: Protect My Card website.