II 

117TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 4674 

To amend the Electronic Fund Transfer Act to require the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve system to prescribe regulations relating 

to network competition in credit card transactions, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 28, 2022 

Mr. MARSHALL (for Mr. DURBIN (for himself and Mr. MARSHALL)) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs 

A BILL 

To amend the Electronic Fund Transfer Act to require the 

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve system to 

prescribe regulations relating to network competition in 

credit card transactions, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Credit Card Competi5 tion Act of 2022’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. COMPETITION IN CREDIT CARD TRANSACTIONS. 

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 921 of the Electronic 

3 Fund Transfer Act (15 U.S.C. 1693o–2) is amended— 

4 (1) in subsection (b)— 

5 (A) by redesignating paragraphs (2), (3), 

6 and (4) as paragraphs (3), (4), and (5), respec7 tively; and 

8 (B) by inserting after paragraph (1) the 

9 following: 

10 ‘‘(2) COMPETITION IN CREDIT CARD TRANS11 ACTIONS.— 

12 ‘‘(A) NO EXCLUSIVE NETWORK.— 

13 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 

14 year after the date of enactment of the 

15 Credit Card Competition Act of 2022, the 

16 Board shall prescribe regulations providing 

17 that a covered card issuer or payment card 

18 network shall not directly or through any 

19 agent, processor, or licensed member of a 

20 payment card network, by contract, re21 quirement, condition, penalty, technological 

22 specification, or otherwise, restrict the 

23 number of payment card networks on 

24 which an electronic credit transaction may 

25 be processed to— 

26 ‘‘(I) 1 such network; 


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1 ‘‘(II) 2 or more such networks 

2 which are owned, controlled, or other3 wise operated by— 

4 ‘‘(aa) affiliated persons; or 

5 ‘‘(bb) networks affiliated 

6 with such issuer; or 

7 ‘‘(III) subject to clause (ii), the 2 

8 such networks that hold the 2 largest 

9 market shares with respect to the 

10 number of credit cards issued in the 

11 United States by licensed members of 

12 such networks (and enabled to be 

13 processed through such networks), as 

14 determined by the Board on the date 

15 on which the Board prescribes the 

16 regulations. 

17 ‘‘(ii) DETERMINATIONS BY BOARD.— 

18 ‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—The Board, 

19 not later than 3 years after the date 

20 on which the regulations prescribed 

21 under clause (i) take effect, and not 

22 less frequently than once every 3 

23 years thereafter, shall determine 

24 whether the 2 networks identified 

25 under clause (i)(III) have changed, as 


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1 compared with the most recent such 

2 determination by the Board. 

3 ‘‘(II) EFFECT OF DETERMINA4 TION.—If the Board, under subclause 

5 (I), determines that the 2 networks 

6 described in clause (i)(III) have 

7 changed (as compared with the most 

8 recent such determination by the 

9 Board), clause (i)(III) shall no longer 

10 have any force or effect. 

11 ‘‘(B) NO ROUTING RESTRICTIONS.—Not 

12 later than 1 year after the date of enactment of 

13 the Credit Card Competition Act of 2022, the 

14 Board shall prescribe regulations providing that 

15 a covered card issuer or payment card network 

16 shall not— 

17 ‘‘(i) directly or through any agent, 

18 processor, or licensed member of the net19 work, by contract, requirement, condition, 

20 penalty, or otherwise— 

21 ‘‘(I) inhibit the ability of any per22 son who accepts credit cards for pay23 ments to direct the routing of elec24 tronic credit transactions for procVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:18 Aug 04, 2022 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4674.IS S4674

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1 essing over any payment card network 

2 that— 

3 ‘‘(aa) may process such 

4 transactions; and 

5 ‘‘(bb) is not on the list es6 tablished by the Board under 

7 subparagraph (D); 

8 ‘‘(II) require any person who ac9 cepts credit cards for payments to ex10 clusively use, for transactions associ11 ated with a particular credit card, an 

12 authentication, tokenization, or other 

13 security technology that cannot be 

14 used by all of the payment card net15 works that may process electronic 

16 credit transactions for that particular 

17 credit card; or 

18 ‘‘(III) inhibit the ability of an19 other payment card network to handle 

20 or process electronic credit trans21 actions using an authentication, 

22 tokenization, or other security tech23 nology for the processing of those 

24 electronic credit transactions; or 


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1 ‘‘(ii) impose any penalty or disadvan2 tage, financial or otherwise, on any person 

3 for— 

4 ‘‘(I) choosing to direct the rout5 ing of an electronic credit transaction 

6 over any payment card network on 

7 which the electronic credit transaction 

8 may be processed; or 

9 ‘‘(II) failing to ensure that a cer10 tain number, or aggregate dollar 

11 amount, of electronic credit trans12 actions are handled by a particular 

13 payment card network. 

14 ‘‘(C) APPLICABILITY.—The regulations 

15 prescribed under subparagraphs (A) and (B) 

16 shall not apply to a credit card issued in a 3- 

17 party payment system model. 

18 ‘‘(D) DESIGNATION OF NATIONAL SECU19 RITY RISKS.—Not later than 1 year after the 

20 date of enactment of the Credit Card Competi21 tion Act of 2022, the Board, in consultation 

22 with the Secretary of the Treasury, shall pre23 scribe regulations to establish a public list of 

24 any payment card network— 


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1 ‘‘(i) the processing of electronic credit 

2 transactions by which is determined by the 

3 Board to pose a risk to the national secu4 rity of the United States; or 

5 ‘‘(ii) that is owned, operated, or spon6 sored by a foreign state entity. 

7 ‘‘(E) DEFINITIONS.—In this paragraph— 

8 ‘‘(i) the terms ‘card issuer’ and ‘cred9 itor’ have the meanings given the terms in 

10 section 103 of the Truth in Lending Act 

11 (15 U.S.C. 1602); 

12 ‘‘(ii) the term ‘covered card issuer’ 

13 means a card issuer that, together with the 

14 affiliates of the card issuer, has assets of 

15 more than $100,000,000,000; 

16 ‘‘(iii) the term ‘credit card issued in a 

17 3-party payment system model’ means a 

18 credit card issued by a card issuer that 

19 is— 

20 ‘‘(I) the payment card network 

21 with respect to the credit card; or 

22 ‘‘(II) under common ownership 

23 with the payment card network with 

24 respect to the credit card; 


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1 ‘‘(iv) the term ‘electronic credit trans2 action’— 

3 ‘‘(I) means a transaction in 

4 which a person uses a credit card; and 

5 ‘‘(II) includes a transaction in 

6 which a person does not physically 

7 present a credit card for payment, in8 cluding a transaction involving the 

9 entry of credit card information onto, 

10 or use of credit card information in 

11 conjunction with, a website interface 

12 or a mobile telephone application; and 

13 ‘‘(v) the term ‘licensed member’ in14 cludes, with respect to a payment card net15 work— 

16 ‘‘(I) a creditor or card issuer that 

17 is authorized to issue credit cards 

18 bearing any logo of the payment card 

19 network; and 

20 ‘‘(II) any person, including any 

21 financial institution and any person 

22 that may be referred to as an 

23 ‘acquirer’, that is authorized to— 

24 ‘‘(aa) screen and accept any 

25 person into any program under 


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1 which that person may accept, 

2 for payment for goods or serv3 ices, a credit card bearing any 

4 logo of the payment card net5 work; 

6 ‘‘(bb) process transactions 

7 on behalf of any person who ac8 cepts credit cards for payments; 

9 and 

10 ‘‘(cc) complete financial set11 tlement of any transaction on be12 half of a person who accepts 

13 credit cards for payments.’’; and 

14 (2) in subsection (d)(1), by inserting ‘‘, except 

15 that the Bureau shall not have authority to enforce 

16 the requirements of this section or any regulations 

17 prescribed by the Board under this section’’ after 

18 ‘‘section 918’’. 

19 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The regulations prescribed 

20 by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System 

21 under paragraph (2) of section 921(b) of the Electronic 

22 Fund Transfer Act (15 U.S.C. 1693o–2(b)), as amended 

23 by subsection (a) of this section, shall take effect on the 


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1 date that is 180 days after the date on which the Board 

2 prescribes the final version of those regulations. 

Æ 


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