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Ever since the Durbin Amendment upended the debit card industry in 2010, insiders have speculated that Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) would eventually pursue similar changes to the credit card industry.

Sen. Durbin made it known during a May 2022 Senate Judiciary Committee meeting that credit card reform was in his crosshairs. As inflation rose, he found a bipartisan partner in Sen. Roger Marshal (R-Kan.) and introduced bill S.4674, the Credit Card Competition Action of 2022.

This bill reflects many principles Reg II applied to routing, intending to increase competition and reduce merchant costs. If this bill becomes law, it will have significant consequences for issuers and consumers, potentially completely upending credit access as we know it today. It could also lead some issuers to dial back rewards and benefits.

Many of you will remember the initial fear experienced when the Internet debuted in the 1990s. At the time, the popular narrative was that every business, no matter how big or small, would be on the information superhighway by the year 2000, replacing conventional media forms like newspapers, billboards, and the yellow pages. Fast forward nearly 30 years, and now everyone’s life is touched (and in many ways, sustained) by the Web.