The Senate’s new Credit Card Competition Act has harmful implications for America’s credit unions

The “Credit-Card Competition Act” was recently introduced in the U-S Senate by Senators Dick Durbin and Roger Marshall—and, if passed, would create new rules for credit-card routing. However, Dan Berger—the president and C-E-O of the “National Association of Federally-Insured Credit-Unions”—believes that such a mandate would only serve large retailers, while hurting “Main Street” small-businesses and American consumers… “Let me be clear: This is all about the big-box retailers wanting even more profit—at the expense of ‘Main Street’ small-businesses, and community financial-institutions. Using lesser-known credit-card networks could lead to more risks—and elevated safety-concerns. Many small businesses would also have to eat up a lot of costs—in order to prepare for the changes in routing-requirements. Unlike the name suggests, this bill would create anything but competition—and would basically reroute any revenue back to the big-box retailers. Much of that revenue would be taken away from credit-unions and other community financial-institutions—which, in turn, would hurt their ability to provide products and services to you that are safe and cost-effective. That’s especially important now—given the need for credit-unions in underserved and rural areas, and the fact that Americans continue to feel the pressure at the gas-pump and in grocery-stores.” Berger urges people to tell their members-of-Congress to vote “no” on the “Credit-Card Competition Act”—and to share their own stories about the importance of credit-unions. To learn more, visit “n-a-f-c-u”-dot-org.