NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Dan Murray with the Kansas chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business praised the introduction of a bill by Kansas U.S. Senator Roger Marshall and others to allow for more competition for credit card processing.
"Small business owners operate on thin profit margins," Murray said. "Those margins have been increasingly cut into in recent years. Credit card companies, as many know, charge swipe fees. Those swipe fees have increased dramatically over the last decade. In fact, they have more than doubled."
The current situation leaves business owners having to pay whatever the two major credit cards decide they should.
"What we see is, these swipe fees are charged by the network that is instituted by Visa and Mastercard with the banks, particularly the large banks that issue credit cards," Murray said. "There's only one network from which small business retailers can choose. They're over a barrel, to say, hey, do we not take the business?"
The bipartisan Credit Card Competition Act of 2023 would require credit card companies to offer at least two networks on each credit card.
"We, as an organization, rarely get involved in these business to business transactions," Murray said. "In this rare case, where 92% of our small business owners have told us this is such an important issue, particularly given the pervasive, inflationary rates with products and services, this issue has become too important not to address. Because there's no true marketplace competition, we need to introduce a moderate amount of competition."
The 2021-2022 session of Congress ended before the bills could see a vote, but action is expected in the current session.
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