Joint State Financial Services Associations to the Senate and House: Opposition to S. 4674, Credit Card Competition Act of 2022

August 5, 2022

The Honorable Chuck Schumer
Majority Leader
U.S. Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

The Honorable Mitch McConnell
Minority Leader
U.S. Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Speaker
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

The Honorable Kevin McCarthy
Minority Leader
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

Re: Joint State Financial Services Associations Letter Opposing S.4674 & Expansion of Durbin Amendment Routing to Credit

Dear Majority Leader Schumer, Minority Leader McConnell, Speaker Pelosi, and Minority Leader McCarthy:

The undersigned state and national trade associations, representing virtually all banks and credit unions, write to express our strong opposition to the so-called “Credit Card Competition Act of 2022” (S. 4674) introduced by Senators Roger Marshall (KS) and Dick Durbin (IL).

Far from increasing competition in the credit card marketplace, this legislation will reduce the number of credit card issuers competing for consumers’ business, wring out the competitive differences among card products, decimate card rewards programs (e.g. airline miles) valued by American families and our tourism sector, and put the nation’s private-sector payments system under the micromanagement of the Federal Reserve Board. The Marshall-Durbin bill does all this by using legislation to award private-sector contracts to a small handful of the sponsors’ favored payment networks in order to pad the profits of the largest internet1 and national merchants who are raising prices on American families far more than the real rate of inflation.

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