What the Credit Card Competition Act Would Mean for Your Swipe Fees
What the Credit Card Competition Act Would Actually Do
The Credit Card Competition Act is a bill that would force the largest card-issuing banks to put a second, non-Visa-and-non-Mastercard network on every credit card they issue — so that when a customer pays, the merchant’s processor could route that transaction over the cheaper of two networks instead of being locked into one. It is the credit-card version of a rule that has governed debit cards since 2010.
Reintroduced in January 2026 as S.3623 in the Senate and H.R.7035 in the House, the bill targets only “covered” issuers — banks with more than $100 billion in assets. Smaller community banks and credit unions are carved out. The mechanism is narrow: it does not cap interchange directly, and it does not set a price. It simply removes the network exclusivity that lets two companies set the terms for roughly 85% of the credit-card market, and lets competition do the rest.
Today your customer’s bank decides which network carries the transaction, and that’s almost always Visa or Mastercard. The bill would require a second network to be available, and give your processor — not the bank — the choice of which one to use.
Where the Bill Is Right Now
As of this writing, the Credit Card Competition Act is sitting in committee — referred to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and the House Committee on Financial Services after its January 2026 reintroduction. It has not had a floor vote. It has not cleared committee. That is the same place earlier versions of the bill have stalled in every prior Congress since 2022.
What is genuinely different this round is the political backing. The bill is sponsored by Senators Roger Marshall and Dick Durbin — the same bipartisan pair behind every prior version — and this time it carries a public endorsement from President Trump, who called swipe fees an out-of-control problem. Supporters argue that if the bill ever reached a floor vote, it would pass. The fight has always been about getting it there.
In March 2026, the sponsors tried to attach the measure as an amendment to a major housing bill — the same legislative-vehicle tactic used to pass the original debit-card rule in 2010. The Senate passed the housing bill without the amendment. The sponsors have signaled they will keep looking for a larger package to attach it to through the rest of 2026.
Why a Bill With This Much Support Hasn’t Passed
The opposition is well-funded and well-organized. Banks and the card networks argue the bill would gut the interchange revenue that funds rewards programs and fraud protection, and that routing some transactions over a second network could weaken security. The trade groups representing issuers have spent years and considerable money keeping the bill bottled up in committee, and they have been effective at it.
There is also a real concern raised by smaller institutions: even though community banks and credit unions are exempt from the mandate, they say they would face higher operating costs trying to stay competitive with the dual-network cards big banks would be forced to issue. Whether that concern is genuine or a talking point depends on who you ask, but it gives wavering legislators a reason to hesitate.
A bill stuck in committee with no scheduled vote is not a bill you should plan your business around. Even in the optimistic case where it passes, the law gives the Federal Reserve up to a year after enactment to write the actual rules — so real-world routing changes would be a year or more away from any signing date. This is a “watch it,” not a “wait for it.”
What It Would Mean for Your Processing Costs
If the bill became law and the routing rules took effect, the most direct beneficiary would be your processor’s ability to send credit transactions over a competing network that prices itself below Visa or Mastercard on a given transaction. In a competitive routing environment, those savings can be passed down to merchants — that is exactly what happened on the debit side after the 2010 rule, where regulated debit routing gave merchants real per-transaction savings.
The mechanics of how that routing actually works — networks, least-cost routing, who controls the decision — are the same machinery that already governs your debit transactions today. If you want to understand the plumbing the CCCA is trying to extend to credit, the clearest place to start is how it already operates on debit: see how debit routing works and who controls it.
The honest caveat: “could be passed down” is not “will be.” The debit experience showed that routing savings reach merchants only when someone is actively routing for least cost on their behalf. A processor that pockets the difference leaves the savings on the table. The legislation creates the opportunity; it does not guarantee the merchant sees it.
What You Can Actually Act On Today
Here is the part most coverage of this bill skips: nothing about the Credit Card Competition Act helps your margin this month, this quarter, or — realistically — this year. It is pending legislation with no vote scheduled. Building a cost strategy around it is building on a maybe.
The costs you can change right now live in your current pricing structure, not in Congress. Whether you are on interchange-plus or a marked-up tiered or flat-rate plan determines far more about your effective rate than any pending bill will for the foreseeable future. The single most useful thing a merchant can do while the CCCA sits in committee is find out what they are actually paying today — the markup hiding inside the statement, the downgrades, the padding — because that number is fixable now and the bill is not.
Lowering your effective rate through a transparent interchange-plus structure delivers savings today, with or without the CCCA. If the bill ever passes and routing competition arrives, you are simply positioned to benefit from it on top of savings you already captured. Either way, the work starts with reading your own statement.
Frequently Asked Questions
No, but it is the same idea applied to a different card type. The Durbin Amendment (2010) capped and added routing competition to debit cards. The Credit Card Competition Act would bring routing competition — though not a price cap — to credit cards issued by the largest banks. They share a sponsor in Senator Durbin and the same underlying mechanism. For how that routing machinery actually functions, see our explainer on debit routing.
No. As of this writing it has been reintroduced (January 2026) and referred to committee in both the Senate and House, but it has not had a floor vote in either chamber and has not become law. A March 2026 attempt to attach it to a housing bill failed. The sponsors are still seeking a legislative vehicle to carry it.
Potentially, but not automatically and not immediately. The bill would give your processor the ability to route credit transactions over a cheaper competing network, the way debit routing works today. Those savings reach merchants only when a processor actively routes for least cost and passes the difference along. And the Federal Reserve would have up to a year after any enactment to write the rules — so any real effect is well over a year from a signing date that has not happened.
More on routing, swipe fees, and what merchants are doing about them
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