Payments Battle: Law Seeks to Break Up Visa/Mastercard Duopoly in the U.S.

The fight over credit card fees is reigniting in the U.S. with a bill seeking to foster competition against the dominance of Visa and Mastercard.

Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, although planning to retire, intends to reintroduce the Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA). The goal is to require issuing banks to always offer an alternative processing network to Visa and Mastercard, which currently handle nearly 87% of card transactions in the U.S.

This measure has strong support from retailers, who are seeking to reduce interchange fees, but faces fierce opposition from the banking industry and payment networks (represented by the EPC), which defend their business model and warn of potential impacts on rewards and security.

In Europe, banking consolidation continues: Italian bank Mediobanca has launched a €6.3 billion bid for Banca Generali.