MPC Welcomes Durbin Push for Credit Card Competition Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 16, 2026) — The Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC) welcomed remarks made by Senator Dick Durbin, D-Ill., on the Senate floor Thursday, January 15 as he called for passage of the Credit Card Competition Act two days after the measure was endorsed by President Donald Trump.

“This bipartisan bill that I’ve described to you — the Credit Card Competition Act — was endorsed by President Trump this week,” Durbin said. “He was unequivocable in supporting it.

“Let’s get this done on behalf of consumers and small businesses. This is the time to do it if we’re going to meaningfully address the real expenses families face,” he said, adding that swipe fees “feed into the inflation aspects of this economy.”

“Visa and Mastercard have a virtual death grasp on the credit card network market,” Durbin said. “These is no competition unless the Marshall-Durbin-Welch bill passes.”

Durbin’s remarks came after Trump endorsed the CCCA in a social media post on Monday and said it is needed “in order to stop the out of control Swipe Fee ripoff.” Later the same day, Durbin and fellow lead sponsor Senator Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, along with Senator Peter Welch, D-Vt., formally reintroduced the bill in the Senate while Representatives Lance Gooden, R-Texas, and Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., did the same in the House.

“From President Trump endorsing the bill to Senator Durbin making a push for passage on the Senate floor, momentum to finally bring competition to credit card swipe fees is at the highest level we’ve ever seen and is building quickly,” said Doug Kantor, MPC Executive Committee member and National Association of Convenience Stores General Counsel. “When Donald Trump, Roger Marshall, Dick Durbin, Lance Gooden and Zoe Lofgren all agree on something, that’s a clear sign that this is a non-partisan issue that impacts American families across the political spectrum. These fees have driven up costs for small businesses and prices for consumers for far too long. The time to pass the Credit Card Competition Act has come.”

The CCCA is supported by nearly 2,000 companies and nearly 300 trade associations, as well as a broad coalition of consumer, labor, and pro-competition organizations.

The legislation represents an effort to inject competition into the credit card processing market, which is dominated by Visa and Mastercard. Swipe fees are most merchants’ highest operating cost after labor and are too much to absorb, driving up prices by an estimated $1,200 a year for the average family.

Visa and Mastercard — which control 80% of the market — each centrally set swipe fees charged by banks that issue cards under their brands and also block transactions from being processed over other networks that could do the job with lower fees and better security. The legislation would require banks with at least $100 billion in assets to enable cards they issue to be processed over at least two unaffiliated networks — Visa or Mastercard plus a competitor like NYCE, Star, or Shazam. Banks would choose which networks to enable, but merchants would then choose which to use, resulting in competition over fees, security, and service that is expected to save merchants and consumers $17 billion a year. Rewards would not be affected, security would be improved, consumers would still use the same cards, and community banks and all but one credit union would be exempt.

NSGA is a member of the Merchants Payments Coalition.