Sens. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) last week filed an amendment that would add the ABA-opposed S. 4674 to the upcoming National Defense Authorization Act, which is scheduled for consideration later this month.
ABA joined a broad coalition of state bankers associations and credit union associations in a strongly worded letter sent Friday to congressional leaders opposing S. 4674, the Credit Card Competition Act of 2022. The bill, which was introduced by Sens. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and Dick Durbin (Ill.), would create new credit card routing mandates that will affect banks that issue credit.
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, banking, credit card industry representatives and some lawmakers pushed back against proposals to expand interchange regulation to credit cards, arguing that the existing interchange fee limits imposed by the Durbin amendment more than a decade ago are hurting consumers.
Ahead of a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee on credit and debit card interchange fees, ABA joined with a broad coalition of industry groups to communicate to lawmakers the serious flaws of interchange regulations and push back against efforts to expand the Durbin amendment.
In a statement for the record of a House Financial Services Committee task force hearing, ABA urged lawmakers to “remain vigilant and deliberate” in their policymaking to ensure that regulations support innovation in mobile banking and payments, rather than overregulating or replacing private sector innovators.
In a letter to the Federal Reserve yesterday, a group of six financial trade associations—including the American Bankers Association and the Independent Community Bankers of America—described the ongoing harm that the Durbin Amendment has caused to consumers and community banks and called for its repeal and expressed concerns about the risks from current and potential future proposals to change Regulation II (Durbin’s implementing regulation).
The American Bankers Association and five other financial trade groups yesterday urged the Federal Reserve to withdraw its proposal to expand the Durbin Amendment’s implementing rule (Regulation II), unless the Fed fixes key legal and technical deficiencies.
Amid substantial growth in online purchases in recent years, the Federal Reserve today reopened its rule on the Durbin Amendment.
Even before consumers’ acceleration to online shopping due to the pandemic, card-not-present debit transactions rose 21% year-on-year in 2019, according to Pulse’s debit issuer survey released today.
As consumer spending patterns shift, banks are adjusting on the fly and focusing on relationships.