Two U.S. senators are preparing legislation that would give merchants power to process many Visa and Mastercard credit cards over different networks. The bill, which could be introduced as soon as this week, aims to create more competition among U.S. credit-card networks, a sector where Visa and Mastercard have long dominated.
Representatives for Visa and Mastercard didn’t immediately have a comment. “Routing mandates on credit cards is a multibillion dollar corporate welfare scheme for big box retailers that will lead to less secure, less innovative, and higher-risk transactions for American consumers,” said Jeff Tassey, board chairman of the Electronic Payments Coalition, which represents card issuers and networks.