The Credit Card Competition Act would leave consumers with fewer choices and decreased access to credit while local banks and credit unions would be harmed by even more government intervention, the top executives of three Missouri banker and credit union associations said Monday in an op-ed for The Missouri Times.
CCCA was introduced in the Senate in June by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), with a companion bill introduced the House. In their op-ed, the heads of the Missouri Bankers Association, Missouri Credit Union Association and Missouri Independent Bankers Association said the bill gives enormous power to government bureaucrats by putting the Fed in charge of the U.S. credit card system while placing a federal mandate on card networks and routing.
“The fine print shows this legislation requires banks and credit unions to pay for the enormous cost of rewiring how credit cards are processed under the guise of increased competition. But the market is already competitive,” they said. “There are currently thousands of credit card issuers, many of which are small banks and credit unions. The increased costs stemming from this bill will make it more difficult for them to compete, and some will be driven out of offering credit cards completely.”
