unions to community members who benefit most from access to a financial institution. The bill limits these new requirements to only institutions over $100 billion in assets. Although the Durbin Amendment provided an exemption for institutions under $10 billion in assets, community banks and credit unions still suffered a 33% decrease in their interchange revenue. There is no way to limit one segment of the credit card ecosystem without affecting everyone else because the need to negotiate flows down to institutions of all sizes that must reduce interchange fees to avoid losing customers. While merchants and retail groups maintain this legislation will lower prices for consumers, the reality, as demonstrated by the results of the Durbin Amendment, is that this is simply not true. The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond found that after the Durbin Amendment was implemented, 98.8% of merchants failed to pass savings realized from debit regulation on to consumers, and over 20% actually increased their prices. Bigbox retailers support this bill because it requires banks and credit unions to route credit card transactions to the cheapest network while lining their own pockets. Based on the opinions of individuals involved in the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Committee, I don’t believe the legislation will pass this year, but we cannot assume anything. The retail lobby is persistent and powerful, so we must continue to share our message. The NAFCU Government Affairs team will continue to meet with and educate legislators and their staff, but we need our members to bolster these efforts. Credit unions are the best messenger. Let your lawmakers know how the CCCA would affect your members—their constituents. Contact your lawmakers via the association’s Grassroots Action Center [www.nafcu.org/grassroots] and share a statement that can be used with media, members of Congress and others to oppose this bad policy.
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