Interchange Fight Grows as Three Senators Back Credit Card Bill

Three more senators have joined the fight over credit card interchange, giving new momentum to a bill that merchants say would save them billions of dollars.

Sens. Angus King (I-ME), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), and Bernie Moreno (R-OH) have signed on as new co-sponsors of the Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA).

Both Lummis and Moreno are members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. The act has been referred to that committee but has not received a vote.

President Donald Trump has expressed support for the bill endorsing the CCCA earlier this year and referencing it again this month.

In an August 3 Truth Social post, Trump pointed to efforts by Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) to pass the bill. Marshall is the lead Republican sponsor of the Senate bill introduced in January.

“Main Street businesses and their everyday customers will benefit (if the CCCA passes).” — Doug Kantor, Merchants Payments Coalition

Marshall initially introduced the bill in 2022 with co-sponsor Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL). Durbin is not seeking reelection in 2026, leaving one of the CCCA’s longtime champions with a shrinking window to move it through Congress though the new support helps its odds of passing.

Despite its name, the CCCA would not directly lower interchange rates. But it would require financial institutions with at least $100 billion in assets to allow eligible credit card transactions to be routed over at least two unaffiliated payment networks, including at least one other than Visa or Mastercard.

Supporters believe more competition among payment networks would eventually mean lower fees for businesses that accept credit cards.

The fight over interchange is a big battle over a relatively small charge.

Credit card interchange rates typically run from about 1% to 3% per transaction, sometimes with a fixed charge tacked on. The rate depends on the card, how the customer pays, and other factors.

A swipe fee may look small on one purchase. Multiply it across thousands or millions of transactions, though, and the cost adds up fast.

With this being the case, businesses and merchant groups unsurprisingly support the CCCA, while banks, credit unions, payment networks, and their associated trade groups largely oppose it.

Doug Kantor, Executive Committee Member of the Merchants Payments Coalition and General Counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores, thanked the three senators in a press release supporting the bill.

“Each of these senators deserves credit for standing up to Wall Street megabanks and global card networks,” Kantor added. “Main Street businesses and their everyday customers will benefit. Swipe fees have been driving up the price of just about everything for far too long and we appreciate these senators striking a blow to stop it.”

Businesses could certainly benefit if greater routing competition brings their payment costs down. Most companies would not turn up their noses at keeping more money from each sale.

But that does not mean their customers would get a cut.

Billions of dollars are on the line, which helps explain why this fight has dragged on for years.

A CMSPI analysis cited by merchant advocates estimated that credit card routing competition could have saved merchants more than $17 billion in 2024.

But merchant savings do not automatically become consumer savings. Businesses would be free to lower prices — or pocket the difference.

There is reason for skepticism. A 2025 Progressive Policy Institute analysis concluded that the federal cap on debit card interchange fees failed to produce the consumer savings its supporters had projected. Other research has found the effect on prices difficult to pin down.

“With more than a decade of new data and analysis, it is evident that those consumer benefits never materialized,” the authors of the Progressive Policy Institute analysis wrote.

Opponents of the CCCA say consumers might not only fail to save money if it passes. They may also end up with weaker credit card rewards.

The CCCA does not touch rewards directly. But interchange is a source of revenue for card issuers, and opponents say shrinking that revenue while adding network costs could make rewards less attractive for banks to offer.

There is some precedent. Forbes reported that some banks dropped debit card rewards after federal limits on debit interchange took effect. Credit card issuers would not necessarily follow suit, however, and CCCA supporters dispute warnings that rewards would suffer.

Opponents also predict tighter credit access, lower limits, and higher cardholder fees as issuers adjust to the new economics.

None of that is required by the bill. It is speculation about how issuers might respond — just as lower consumer prices depend on merchants choosing to share their savings.