Keeping up on our never ending industry coverage to keep our readers in the know; Senator Dick Durbin (D) has once again raised war against MasterCard and Visa. Durbin is poised to introduce the “Credit Card Competition Act of 2022.” This bill would mandate a minimum number of competitive networks in a theoretical attempt to create more competition and lower interchange rates, despite there being other networks already available.
The credit card industry is dominated by Visa and Mastercard accounting for 84% of all transactions, and they continue to raise fees with little to no oversight. Both Visa and mastercard have reported higher profits during these trying economic times for american families, and yet these processing fees are a constant struggle for merchants across the US.
The bipartisan Credit Card Competition Act would make cards issued by the biggest banks have more than one processing network on them, allowing the merchant to choose which of those networks to use at the point of sale. The hope is that this bill would create a normal, healthy competitive market where both sides have the ability to compete.
But, one has to wonder if Senator Durbin has considered the real world implementation this could impose forcing third party networks into the mix? Security risks? API mass overhaul? While many may feel Mastercard and Visa networks interchange rates may be a little high, both MC and Visa spend massive amount of money on data security to make sure that consumer data is not breached.
Is the potential forced competition a dangerous road to go down? Follow along as we continue to keep our readers in the know with the most up to date industry knowledge.
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