Unlikely allies team up against new interchange rules

“We are more than willing to put aside our differences as an outward sign to Congress and the public of how crucial this issue is to our industries.”

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is expected to support the Tester-Corker industry-backed legislation, a move in opposition to his colleague and friend Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who has pressed for the new rules that he has argued would help consumers. 

“The biggest banks in America — the top 1 percent of banks in America — are the ones that do almost 60 percent of this card business. I am talking about the same Wall Street banks that ended up getting a bailout from the federal government to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars,” Durbin said in a recent speech. 

“I do not have a lot of sympathy for them,” he said. “From my point of view, we should not be subsidizing them or creating an opportunity for them to fix prices when it comes to merchants and retailers across America.”

Fine said many senators supported the provision because they thought community banks and credit unions were excluded, “but this is simply not the case.” 

“The thousands of community banks and credit unions we represent want senators to know the truth — that the carve-out won’t work and will only harm Main Street by costing consumers more,” he said. 

“This rule must be delayed so that there is more time to consider its harsh ramifications.”

—Alexander Bolton contributed to this story.