Retailers ask Congress to give them the means to bypass Mastercard and Visa

A group of more than 1,600 merchants is asking Congress to pass legislation that would give them the option of using networks other than Mastercard and Visa to process credit card transactions. The retailers claim that so-called swipe fees drive up prices for American consumers. Opponents of the proposed legislation argue that merchants who claim that savings would be passed on to consumers failed to do so when the Durbin amendment was passed as part of the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010. Mastercard and Visa account for 77 percent of all credit card spending in the U.S., according to the Nilson Report.