Main Street Merchants and Retail Coalitions Press Congress to Pass Credit Card Competition Act as Fees Hit Record Highs
Small business associations, convenience stores, and retail alliances have issued a unified plea to lawmakers, demanding action on swipe fee regulations that now cost American merchants over $170 billion annually.
WASHINGTON — A nationwide coalition of small business associations, grocery store chains, and independent retail alliances gathered Monday to intensify pressure on congressional leaders to advance the Credit Card Competition Act. Citing new financial audit reports indicating that payment processing and credit card interchange "swipe fees" surpassed an unprecedented $170 billion over the past twelve months, merchant representatives warned that escalating transactional costs are squeezing small enterprise operating margins and driving consumer retail prices higher.
Under the current payment processing architecture dominated by Visa and Mastercard, merchants are routinely assessed interchange fees ranging between 2% and 3.5% on every credit card transaction. The proposed bipartisan legislation, sponsored by Senator Dick Durbin and Senator Roger Marshall, would require large commercial financial institutions with over $100 billion in assets to enable at least two unaffiliated routing networks on credit cards, injecting market competition into an otherwise duopolistic clearing infrastructure.
Banking and financial services trade associations, including the American Bankers Association and the Consumer Bankers Association, have mobilized extensive lobbying campaigns against the legislation. Financial institutions argue that government intervention into routing protocols could compromise transaction cybersecurity, undermine popular consumer credit card reward and cash-back programs, and force regional banks to curtail credit availability for lower-income cardholders.
However, independent retailers argue that payment fees have become the second-highest operating expense behind labor for thousands of gas stations, restaurants, and family-owned markets. With inflation and consumer purchasing power remaining a central issue for voters heading into the midterms, merchant coalitions are demanding that congressional leaders prioritize a floor vote during the upcoming post-election legislative session.
Congressional testimony scheduled for later this month is expected to address cross-agency coordination, focusing specifically on supply chain resiliency, sovereign compute clusters, and long-term capital allocation strategies designed to safeguard domestic competitiveness.