ARTICLE
Good Morning! I hope everyone is having a great week and enjoying a little break from the recent extreme heat. I just returned from a quick trip to Bismarck after spending some time visiting some credit unions and rubbing shoulders with North Dakota legislators and lobbyists at a fundraising event benefitting the ND House GOP. Tomorrow we will be teeing off at Elmwood Golf Course in Sioux Falls for the SE605 Chapter’s Annual Charity Golf Tournament, and with 94 golfers registered, I look forward to seeing many of you there! Are You Ready? In Washington neither the House or Senate will be considering any legislation of particular interest to credit unions this week, but work continues behind the scenes on some particularly concerning legislation that aims to lower or eliminate debit/credit card interchange fees. As Jeff Olson has been reporting over the last month in his President’s Perspective, retailers are urging Senator Cramer to support government-sponsored price controls on interchange fees. Credit unions and banks are adamantly opposed to any efforts that would lower or eliminate debit card or credit card interchange fees. And as we witnessed back in 2010, government overreach in the form of price controls and caps on these fees only rewarded merchants. Data shows the billions of dollars in savings rewarded to retailers and merchants were never passed along to consumers as promised. Yet, here we are again, having a similar debate, but this time with a more unlikely source, in Senator Cramer, a member of the Republican Party which typically supports free market capitalism and opposes government overreach and price caps. Merchants seem to be taking advantage of the COVID shutdowns to distort the competitive landscape further by restricting credit union members' and consumers freedom to use the convenient, safe, affordable, and innovative payment options that they choose. While legislation has yet to be officially introduced, now is the time to prepare and review your credit union’s interchange related data to determine the potential impact additional price caps could have on your membership and operations. This will also help you prepare for our future ACTION ALERTS that are already in the works! Please keep an eye on The Memo, your email, and our Grassroots Action Center on the DakCU website for more information on how to participate in these very important ACTION ALERTS. As always, don't hesitate to contact me at jkruse@dakcu.org with any questions or comments.
Good Morning!
I hope everyone is having a great week and enjoying a little break from the recent extreme heat. I just returned from a quick trip to Bismarck after spending some time visiting some credit unions and rubbing shoulders with North Dakota legislators and lobbyists at a fundraising event benefitting the ND House GOP. Tomorrow we will be teeing off at Elmwood Golf Course in Sioux Falls for the SE605 Chapter’s Annual Charity Golf Tournament, and with 94 golfers registered, I look forward to seeing many of you there!
Are You Ready?
In Washington neither the House or Senate will be considering any legislation of particular interest to credit unions this week, but work continues behind the scenes on some particularly concerning legislation that aims to lower or eliminate debit/credit card interchange fees. As Jeff Olson has been reporting over the last month in his President’s Perspective, retailers are urging Senator Cramer to support government-sponsored price controls on interchange fees. Credit unions and banks are adamantly opposed to any efforts that would lower or eliminate debit card or credit card interchange fees. And as we witnessed back in 2010, government overreach in the form of price controls and caps on these fees only rewarded merchants. Data shows the billions of dollars in savings rewarded to retailers and merchants were never passed along to consumers as promised. Yet, here we are again, having a similar debate, but this time with a more unlikely source, in Senator Cramer, a member of the Republican Party which typically supports free market capitalism and opposes government overreach and price caps. Merchants seem to be taking advantage of the COVID shutdowns to distort the competitive landscape further by restricting credit union members' and consumers freedom to use the convenient, safe, affordable, and innovative payment options that they choose.
While legislation has yet to be officially introduced, now is the time to prepare and review your credit union’s interchange related data to determine the potential impact additional price caps could have on your membership and operations. This will also help you prepare for our future ACTION ALERTS that are already in the works!
Please keep an eye on The Memo, your email, and our Grassroots Action Center on the DakCU website for more information on how to participate in these very important ACTION ALERTS.
As always, don't hesitate to contact me at jkruse@dakcu.org with any questions or comments.