Mass Market Retailers: Merchants demand swipe fee reform as banks rake in record profits
Three of the nation’s largest banks reported huge profits again today as merchants continue to press Congress to address rapidly rising “swipe” fees banks charge them to process transactions, the Merchants Payments Coalition said. “Banks are bragging about higher profits and the easy treatment they expect from regulators while Main Street struggles,” MPC Executive Committee member and National Association of Convenience Stores General Counsel Doug Kantor said. “Credit card swipe fees are the result of price-fixing and the credit card industry is looking for ways to make sure they block any new technology that might help. It’s time for Congress to bring relief to Main Street merchants and their customers.”
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Inkl: The Quiet Rise of Stablecoin: Are You Ready to Shop and Bank Differently?
Last year, retailers and e-commerce companies paid a record $187.2 billion in swipe fees for credit and debit cards. That is according to a Merchants Payment Coalition report. “With no competition to hold them in check, price-fixed swipe fees rise every year and shot up again last year,” said MPC Executive Committee member Christine Pollack. She is also vice president of government relations at FMI – The Food Industry Association.
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Digital Transactions: The States’ Battle to Regulate Interchange
“The rise in swipe fees since 2020 has been astronomical, and those are out-the-door dollars for merchants,” says Doug Kantor, a Merchants Payment Coalition executive committee member and general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores. “There is a measure of desperation among merchants over how high and fast fees are rising,” Kantor says. The average card swipe fee is 2.35% for Mastercard and Visa-branded credit cards, according to the Merchants Payments Coalition.
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Digital Transactions: Stablecoins’ Steady Rise
“Our view is we should have more innovation in payments,” says Doug Kantor, general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores and an executive committee member of the Merchants Payments Coalition. But Kantor sees a dark side, as well. “Visa and Mastercard are also engaged in looking at stablecoins,” he notes. “If it’s just a replication of their dominance [in payments], that’s not helpful.”
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Fox News: Bartenders spill the beans on Gen Z's 'annoying' drink-by-drink payment habit
Card payments can not only slow down bartenders on a busy night, they can also be costly to a bar owner's bottom line. Credit card fees, which range from, on average, 2% to 4% of the transaction, are assessed with every swipe, according to Doug Kantor with the Merchants Payments Coalition.
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PYMNTS: Credit Card Competition Act Not Part of GENIUS Bill, But Swipe Fee Debate Endures
The CCCA has been endorsed by the Merchant Payment Coalition (MPC), the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) and other retail groups. The NACS and the MPC said in a statement that the fees paid by merchants to the payment networks were $187.2 billion last year, and represented merchants’ highest operating cost, after wages paid to employees. They also said in that statement that they would continue advocating for the CCCA’s passage.
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CardRates.com: GENIUS Act Clears Senate Without Credit Card Competition or Rate Cap Amendments
Supporters of the amendment are not throwing in the towel. The card networks’ interchange fees decrease the thin profit margins at the retail level and add to the costs paid by the end consumers, says the National Association of Convenience Stores and the Merchants Payments Coalition.
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Newsday: GENIUS Act could bring stablecoin payments to Long Island businesses and consumers
The Merchants Payments Coalition, a national advocacy group, believes the GENIUS Act "creates the potential” to disrupt the credit card industry, said Doug Kantor, general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores, although the group remains concerned that “by itself, it’s not enough.” More widespread adoption of stablecoins will “give business owners more options and allow them to make payments more convenient and cheaper for the customers,” he said, reducing the “inflationary pressure credit card payments have on prices today. It would also allow people to use their phones and other technology to pay for goods and services, rather than carrying around cash or cards, he said.
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Payments Dive: Credit card bill crusade persists
“The banks have been so overly aggressive in advertising against him in Kansas, and doing some other things, that they made it a top priority for him,” NACS General Counsel Doug Kantor said of Marshall in an interview last week. “They made him angry.” Spokespeople for Durbin and Marshall have declined to comment, but the Merchants Payments Coalition said the latest CCCA campaign brought a “surge of support.”
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Bloomberg: Retailers Seen Using Stablecoins to Push Back Against Card Fees
“The reason why the fees are so high is that Visa and Mastercard each organize banks all around the country into the dictionary definition of a pricing cartel, and they tell them how much to charge merchants,” said Doug Kantor, general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores (and MPC Executive Committee member). “The result is all of these banks that are supposed to be competitors, don’t compete on the price to merchants of accepting a card.”
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