CUANM’s Heimbuck: Interchange bill will do more harm than good

The Credit Union Association of New Mexico is concerned about the big box interchange bill on behalf of the people CUANM serves, President/CEO Melia Heimbuck wrote in The Albuquerque Journal. 

She cites the CUNA/American Association of Credit Union Leagues study released this summer that shows the Durbin Amendment’s similar caps on debit card interchange fees made money for big box retailers and few others.

“In fact, consumers in New Mexico ended up with greatly reduced access to free checking, and the number of unbanked Americans spiked, further disenfranchising the most economically marginalized members of our communities,” Heimbuck wrote. “The same study predicts that the Credit Card Competition Act will play out the same way: raising consumer costs and reducing access to safe, reliable financial services. New Mexico cannot afford to go down the same destructive path we’ve been on with the Durbin Amendment.”

Heimbuck added that Sens. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., and Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., “have a record as consumer advocates,” and hopes “they will continue the fight for New Mexicans and oppose the Credit Card Competition Act.”