Merchants Tell Congress Credit Card Competition Act Would Block National Security Threat from China UnionPay

On February 7 2023, the Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC) told a House committee holding a hearing on economic threats from China that passage of the Credit Card Competition Act is needed to keep China from “infiltrating” the U.S. payments processing market.

“MPC has grave concerns over the level of involvement that China has in our nation’s payment system,” MPC said in a letter to the House Financial Services Committee. “Preventing China from infiltrating the U.S. payments system is one of our top priorities.”

“Currently, there is no federal law that prevents any financial institution from doing business with China UnionPay to process payments on its credit cards,” the letter said. “If enacted, the Credit Card Competition Act would explicitly forbid card networks that present a national security threat to the United States (including China UnionPay) from entering the U.S. market. This is a vital provision of the legislation that would significantly serve our national security interests.”

The letter was sent to Chairman Patrick McHenry, (R-NC); Ranking Member Maxine Waters, (D-CA), and other committee members as the panel prepared to hold the hearing on “Combatting the Economic Threat from China.” Click here for the story.