Adoption of the Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA) as part of cryptocurrency legislation expected to be approved by the Senate would provide Congress with an opportunity to ease higher prices from inflation, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF).
“With prices for many goods still high, bringing rising swipe fees under control would help offset those costs and provide important relief for consumers and small businesses alike,” NRF chief administrative officer and general counsel Stephanie Martz said in a news release. “Swipe fees are constantly rising, and card networks face nothing to stop them. The Credit Card Competition Act has growing bipartisan support and would bring fairness to our nation’s broken credit card market. Stablecoin legislation complements efforts to bring competition to swipe fees and adding the CCCA is a perfect match.”
Establishing Regulatory Framework for Cryptocurrency
An amendment has been introduced in the Senate that would make the CCCA part of the GENIUS Act – a bill that would establish a regulatory framework for stablecoins – according to CCCA lead sponsors Senators Roger Marshall, R-Kan., and Richard Durbin, D-Ill.
Visa and Mastercard, which control more than 80% of the U.S. credit card market, each centrally set swipe fees ranging from about 2% to 4% of the transaction that are charged by all banks that issue their cards, according to the NRF, and also restrict processing to their own networks. At a record $187.2 billion in 2024, swipe fees are one of retailers’ highest operating expenses and drive up consumer prices by nearly $1,200 a year for the average family. And Visa increased the network fee component of swipe fees by an estimated $100 million this January.
The CCCA would require that credit cards issued by the nation’s largest banks be able to be processed over at least two unaffiliated networks – Visa or Mastercard plus a competing network like American Express or Discover or debit networks like Star, NYCE or Shazam. Merchants would then choose which network to use, according to the NRF, prompting competition over fees, security and service expected to save retailers and their customers $17 billion a year.
The measure would apply only to banks with at least $100 billion in assets and would have no effect on local community banks or small credit unions. Credit card rewards would not be affected because those are determined by banks that issue cards, according to the NRF, not the networks that process transactions.
