CUNA continues its efforts to prevent the big box interchange bill from being attached to other legislation with a letter to Congressional leaders Friday. Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Roger Marshall, R-Kan., are attempting to attach the bill to the Senate “minibus” government funding bill (H.R. 4366).

“Far from increasing competition in the credit card marketplace, this legislation will hurt consumers and benefit big box retailers by reducing the number of credit card issuers competing for consumers’ business, removing a consumer’s choice of preferred card network, wringing out the competitive differences among card products, limiting popular credit card rewards programs, and putting the nation’s private-sector payments system under the micromanagement of the Federal Reserve Board,” the joint letter reads.

“The Durbin-Marshall bill accomplishes this by using legislation to circumvent the free market to award private-sector contracts to a mall handful of the sponsors’ favored payment networks to pad the profits of the largest e-commerce and multi-national retailers who are raising prices on American families far more than the real rate of inflation.”

CUNA, NAFCU, and nine other financial services trade associations signed the letter.

CUNA also:

• Relaunched its Interchange Works website, with links to the Cornerstone Advisors study showing the big box interchange bill would be an even more costly repeat of Dodd-Frank’s Durbin Amendment.
• Issued an action alert to prevent the bill from being attached to any legislation funding the federal government past Sept. 30.
• Launched geotargeted ads for Capitol Hill with real business owners sharing the harmful impact of the bill.