MW Years-long push on swipe fees for credit cards gets a fresh shot. Here's what you need to know.

By Victor Reklaitis

The Credit Card Competition Act has failed to get enacted for years, but it might hitch a ride on a crypto bill

A bipartisan bill focused on credit-card swipe fees has failed to gain traction for years, but it has another shot in the U.S. Senate this week thanks to a separate measure focused on the cryptocurrency industry.

The Credit Card Competition Act - which seeks to provide merchants with more choices when they use credit-card networks - has a chance later this week of being included as an amendment to the Genius Act, a bill that seeks to regulate and boost stablecoins. A stablecoin is a type of cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to another asset, like the dollar.

Related: New crypto bill could turbocharge the stablecoin industry: 4 changes it might bring

The Credit Card Competition Act is unlikely to become law and the financial impact likely would be relatively modest, according to a team of Washington policy analysts at Raymond James led by Ed Mills. However, investors largely have been dismissive about this issue, and it's an underappreciated risk, the analysts said in a note on Monday.

They added that enactment of the credit-card legislation would be clearly negative for Mastercard $(MA)$ and Visa (V) but positive for Capital One Financial $(COF)$ and American Express $(AXP)$. In addition, the Raymond James team stressed that inclusion of the credit-card measure could "torpedo" the stablecoin bill.

From MarketWatch's archives (2022): What possible credit-card legislation could mean for Visa, Mastercard - and you

The Merchants Payments Coalition, a lobbying group for retailers and other companies that support the credit-card legislation, said in a recent statement that it's "time for Congress to deal with the hidden credit-card fees driving up the prices of nearly everything we buy." Meanwhile, the Electronic Payments Coalition, which lobbies for card networks, banks and others, said in a social-media post that "proponents of this legislation claim it promotes competition," but "the truth is it only benefits corporate mega-stores at the expense of smaller financial institutions."

-Victor Reklaitis

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June 02, 2025 15:31 ET (19:31 GMT)

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