Global Legal Partner James Huber Featured in The Green Sheet

A version of this article originally appeared on The Green Sheet. See the original post here.

Durbin wants credit card routing rules

Written By Patti Murphy

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Upsetting the Visa Mastercard Apple Cart

In recent letters to members of congress, groups representing all manner of FIs and payments companies warned of a repeat performance of the Durbin aftershocks if the Credit Card Competition Act becomes law. “This bill is not borne of real needs in the American payments system. It’s about Congress picking winners and losers,” one coalition of financial services trade groups wrote to members of the House.

James Huber, an attorney with Global Legal Law Firm, doesn’t discount that possibility. “Sen. Durbin has it out for Visa and Mastercard. He thinks they’re too big” to be competitive, Huber said. That’s why, he added, the Credit Card Competition Act addresses network processing, with the goal of driving down merchant fees.

Retailers are ecstatic. The Merchants Payments Coalition said it “would bring much-needed relief to retainers and American consumers by simply requiring the Visa and Mastercard were no longer allowed to be exclusive networks.” In addition to lower fees, MPC said, the legislation “would introduce much-needed redundancy protection into the system.”

Perhaps, but most experts agree it would take years of adruous effort for any alternative network to be built that connects millions of acceptance locations, and the connections will need industrial-strength security.

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You can read more of this article and James’s comments here.