FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: J. Craig Shearman
(202) 257-3678 craig@shearmancommunications.com
WASHINGTON, August 8, 2025 — The Merchants Payments Coalition today welcomed President Donald Trump’s executive order intended to keep banks from discriminating on political grounds, one of many ways that banks harm everyday Americans.
“Big banks and credit card companies not only discriminate against conservatives, they mistreat new financial technology companies, cryptocurrency businesses and Main Street businesses,” MPC Executive Committee member and National Association of Convenience Stores General Counsel Doug Kantor said. “Someone needs to stop the banks from their continued attacks on the nation. Their actions are inflating prices and preventing innovation while doing the most harm to small businesses and people who can least afford it.”
Kantor said Visa and Mastercard, which control 80% of the market, block competition from smaller payment networks like NYCE, Star and Shazam. The industry has also discriminated against cryptocurrency companies and fintechs by setting rules that keep them from entering or expanding within the payments market, threatening them with large fees or paying off potential competitors.
Trump said in an executive order signed on Thursday that “Financial institutions have engaged in unacceptable practices to restrict access to financial services on the basis of political or religious beliefs or lawful business practices.” Such practices “discriminate against political beliefs and free expressions of those beliefs,” he said.
In a recent example of discrimination against fintechs, which offer payment alternatives that could put pressure on swipe fees if allowed to thrive, JPMorgan Chase said it plans to charge for access to consumer bank data. The move comes despite a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule adopted last year requiring that data be provided for free, which banks have sued to block.
Financial Technology Association CEO Penny Lee said last month that charging for data “is designed to crush competition, hold back American innovation, and lock consumers into bank-only products.”
The executive order comes as Congress is considering the Credit Card Competition Act, which was cosponsored by Vice President JD Vance when he was in the Senate and currently includes Senator Roger Marshall, R-Kansas; Representative Lance Gooden, R-Texas, and other prominent conservatives among its supporters.
Swipe fees for Visa and Mastercard credit cards alone have more than quadrupled since 2010, reaching $111.2 billion last year, while total credit and debit card swipe fees hit a record $187.2 billion. The fees are most merchants’ highest operating cost after labor, driving up prices by nearly $1,200 a year for the average family.
The fees are rising largely because Visa and Mastercard each centrally price-fix swipe fee rates charged by all banks that issue cards under their brands and also restrict processing to their own networks. Under the CCCA, however, banks with at least $100 billion in assets would enable credit cards to be processed over at least one unaffiliated network like Star, NYCE or Shazam in addition to Visa or Mastercard.
The measure is expected to result in competition over fees, security and service that would save merchants and their customers $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.
About MPC
The Merchants Payments Coalition represents retailers, supermarkets, convenience stores, gasoline stations, online merchants, hotels and others fighting for a more competitive and transparent card system that is fair to consumers and merchants. Follow MPC on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn for the latest on swipe fees.
