Durbin calls on Mastercard to explain penalty fee that hurts competition

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) called on MasterCard to explain a fee it has created to penalize certain banks and credit unions that issue their cards.

On Tuesday, Durbin called on Visa to defend a similar penalty fee. A day later, it was reported that Visa intended to cancel the fee. Similar to Visa’s fee, this MasterCard fee would impose a significant penalty on card issuers that conduct transactions with MasterCard’s competitors. 

“This raises troubling questions about the fee’s impact on network competition and the burdens the fee creates for small banks and credit unions as well as merchants and consumers,” Durbin wrote. “I am interested to know more about MasterCard’s fee and whether MasterCard intends to make any changes with respect to this fee.”

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